Duel Legend
by theria
Summary: An Alternate Universe Rewrite from the beginning. Sugoroku died, Anzu's in America, and Yugi is stuck with a ghost! Now he is stuck in a video game with his friends. Battle 3 is complete, compiled into one chapter.
1. Battle 1

Duel Legend  
Battle 1 - Card of Friendship  
By theria 

* * *

Yugi wasn't religious, in fact no one in his family was. So he wasn't sure why they had a Christian priest at his grandfather's burial. Not that he was paying any attention to him anyway, his purple eyes were fixed on the wooden box in which laid his grandfather, never to play another game with him again. It had been so sudden. He had just said good night to him one night and the next morning Muto Sugoroku was dead. Yugi knew he had a weak heart and some neuromuscular problems that the doctors were never able to figure out but his grandfather had seemed so healthy, so alive. 

The boy felt a slight jab in his arm, forcing him to look up. His mother, her face tear-stained under her black hat, was stepping back after having placed a white rose on the coffin. Yugi looked down at his own hand and wondered exactly how long he had been holding that single flower. He stepped forward and placed it over his mother's. Then the coffin was lowered and the diggers began to toss in the dirt. 

It was a gray overcast day with rain just hanging in the air. Muto Sugoroku's funeral was a small one. Yugi's parents were divorced and his father had taken Yugi's older brother with him when he left Japan ten years ago. Sugoroku's only family in Japan was his daughter Akane and his remaining grandson Yugi. He had a number of acquaintances around the globe but few could come on such short notice. Mostly, the Mutos had received consolation letters. Yugi himself only had one friend attending the funeral, Suomi Kyoko. She had been the one to nudge him forward to place the flower. 

"Thank you for coming, Hopkins-san," Muto Akane choked, shaking the hands of one of Sugoroku's friends who had made it to the funeral. He had come from America with his granddaughter; a blonde green-eyed eleven-year-old girl called Rebecca. 

"Nothing would have kept me from paying my last respects," Arthur Hopkins returned kindly, patting the grieving woman's hand. He had never met Sugoroku's daughter but could easily identify the boy with the golden bangs as being Sugoroku's grandson. After all, he looked exactly like his older brother. "I'm sure Shougi would be here if he could make it." 

Akane only nodded mutely. Shougi was the name of her ex-husband. The divorce had been friendly but she hadn't heard from either him or her elder son ever since they left. Any news she got of Shougi was through the archaeology journals that Sugoroku followed fanatically. And of course there was no news of Yugi's older brother. But if he was still as wild as he had been at age five, perhaps no news was good news. 

"Yugi?" Kyoko looked down at her shorter friend. It was strange to see him in something other than his school uniform. She was surprised he even owned a semi-formal set of clothes, black suit jacket and slacks, white dress shirt and tie. He looked older in those clothes, or was it this experience with death? 

He was still looking at the freshly turned earth that now covered Sugoroku's coffin, almost oblivious to the world around him. The priest had left and the few other people who had came were exchanging polite words with Mrs. Muto several meters away. It was only Kyoko and Yugi still standing there with the dead and the ominous clouds. 

But they weren't the only ones at the cemetery for a funeral today. There had been another one, not very close to them and much, much larger. Kyoko had noticed them as had Yugi, it was kind of hard not to, and the sight of it had made the boy even more depressed. So few people came to his grandfather's funeral, any outsider might have thought it was because there weren't very many people who cared about him. That wasn't true. Yugi cared, his mother cared, Kyoko cared, and having people that truly cared here was more important than having a lot of people who didn't really care. 

The other funeral party was already dispersing and Kyoko, though also sharing Yugi's sorrow, didn't want to continue staring at the fresh grave and so let her eyes drift over to the other party. As far as she could tell, they were mostly adults dressed soberly in black. Bringing children to the cemetery probably wouldn't have been a good idea anyway, they may not understand the concept of death and they were sure to get bored by the entire observance. No wait, Kyoko took back that thought, there was one child there. It was a boy with long black hair that was beginning to fly around like hers was because of the growing wind. The summer storm would be coming soon. 

Yugi took a deep breath to calm his unsteady nerves. He hadn't cried like his mother. It wasn't that he had been taught not to cry in public, in fact his grandfather and mother encouraged him to openly express his feelings. He had cried all his tears before now, ever since that morning Sugoroku died. He hadn't even gone to school for several days and hadn't understood how Kyoko could. But that was just her way of coping. 

"Let's go, Kyoko," Yugi tried to say brightly, some of his golden hair flying into his face. He didn't want his friend to worry about him. After all, now it was just his mother and him and he couldn't always remain a sheltered, coddled child. "Kyoko?" 

"Yugi, perhaps it's just me but isn't that one of our classmates over there?" Kyoko pointed to one person in the lingering remains of the other funeral party. Of course, it was rude to point and if Akane had been with them, she would have reprimanded Kyoko for her lapse of manners. 

The person in question was a brown-haired youth, easily taller than both of them, followed by a pair of men dressed in black and wearing shades. Talk about classic Men in Black. Trailing only slightly behind the youth was the little boy Kyoko had noticed earlier. He was trying to keep up the same stoic face as the older youth and failing. His eyes kept going from the ground, the youth's back, his hand, and then back to the ground. It was like he wanted to grab the older boy's hand but was afraid of taking the action himself. 

"That's Kaiba-kun...," Yugi murmured. Kyoko nodded. Kaiba Seto was in their class at Domino High School and always placed first in the school examinations. He was also first in sports, at least in P.E., but was not part of any clubs. Really, how could he when he has been running Kaiba Corporation for the past several months? 

As fickle fate would have it, their paths met at a crossing as they were both leaving the cemetery. If Kaiba had recognized his classmates, it didn't show. They could have been complete strangers passing in one of the city's busy crosswalks. Yugi however wasn't Kaiba. 

"Kaiba-kun, did someone you know die?" It was a rather blunt question and it came out in a rush but Yugi really didn't know what else to say or how to start. He thought it would be strange to start off with pleasantries like "Hello" and "How are you" considering that they had both just come from funerals. Yugi also knew that if he didn't get to the point right away, the taller boy was likely to simply walk away as Yugi had seen him do plenty of times in school, even to teachers. 

Kaiba did stop though and his blue eyes bore down on Yugi as if the mere force of the stare could make the shorter boy sink into the ground. Even though Yugi hadn't cried, his eyes were still a bit red and sad. Kaiba's blue eyes were closed. He had briefly noted the two familiar faces and he knew they weren't part of _his_ funeral party. Kaiba wasn't in a particularly tolerant or curious mood so he hadn't planned on having any interaction with them. 

"My grandfather died," Yugi spoke up. If misery loved company, than Yugi saw nothing wrong with sharing this information. "We just buried him." 

Kaiba's expression clearly said "And this concerns me how?" with no words. 

"Our foster father died," spoke up the little boy from behind Kaiba. 

"Mokuba!" Kaiba reprimanded, the first thing they had heard him say yet. Mokuba bit back whatever else he was going to say and ducked his head. Kaiba apparently immediately regretted his harsh tone because his next words were softer in tone though not in meaning. "There's no need to tell them anything." 

Mokuba only nodded. 

"Let's go." Without a glance at his classmates, Kaiba proceeded down the path toward the cemetery's gate, his two bodyguards and younger brother in tow as the wind began to pick up. A few large drops of water were already beginning to fall. 

"He doesn't seem particularly sad," Kyoko muttered under her breath. She had heard in March that Kaiba Gozaburou had been forced to hand over his position of CEO of Kaiba Corporation to his son because of some injuries he sustained in an industrial accident. Apparently, the man finally died. 

"Maybe he doesn't show his feelings well," Yugi suggested. Apparently, whoever said misery loved company never met Kaiba. "I bet that makes things harder for you." 

Kyoko fixed a glare at her shorter friend, daring him to voice what he was only hinting at. Okay, so perhaps she was the last person in class who still tried to engage Kaiba in some kind of conversation. Nearly everyone else had given up on trying to be friendly to the distant youth. Yugi didn't quite believe Kyoko's explanation that she just enjoyed picking on Kaiba to try to break his stone face. After all, he had seen Kaiba study his friend a number of times at school when Kyoko wasn't paying attention. He didn't know what was going on in Kaiba's mind but it was a great thing to tease Kyoko about in revenge for all the ribbings she gave to him. 

"Ah, Yugi isn't it? Excuse me." Arthur Hopkins stepped aside to let Kaiba's group pass him on the path as he walked hurriedly up to the two children, his own grandchild swinging her red umbrella behind her. "I was just speaking with your mother and she said that I should ask you about a certain card that your grandfather had." 

Kyoko and Yugi exchanged looks. Yugi's mother didn't particularly like Sugoroku's obsession with certain things, one of which being a certain trading card game that he played with them. And naturally, they knew a little bit about this friend of Sugoroku's and had a very good idea what this "certain card" he was talking about was. Of course, Rebecca mistook their looks to mean ignorance. 

"Oh come on, you must know what card my Grandpa is talking about! It's not just anyone who has a Blue Eyes White Dragon!!" she announced in a loud voice that was inappropriate normally to say nothing of in a solemn place like a cemetery. Perhaps it carried her words farther than she expected because it certainly caused one person to pause mid-step. "I hardly think he needs it anymore now that he's dead and you shouldn't keep it. It should go back to my Grandpa!" 

"Rebecca!" Arthur scolded at his granddaughter's unintentionally callous words. Though both spoke Japanese, his was less heavily accented. Who knows where or why Rebecca learned the language. "Forgive her, she is still young." 

"I'm eleven!" She retorted, drawing herself up to her full height, which only came up to Yugi's nose. 

"Perhaps we should continue this conversation back at the store?" Kyoko hesitantly suggested. The clouds were getting darker, the drops more frequent. There was that and she was simply dying to take off the black heels she had to wear with the black dress for the funeral. The way Yugi was fidgeting with his tie also signaled the end of his tolerance for the formal clothes, his grandfather's funeral or not. 

"It won't be an inconvenience for you, Hopkins-san? My grandfather did state in his will that he had something he wanted given to you," Yugi added, holding up a hand to ward off the wind and water. 

"Of course, it won't be any trouble at all. I had already accepted your mother's invitation to come. If we hurry now, I'm sure we'll be able to all fit in a taxi." 

* * *

Muto Sugoroku, as far as most people knew him, had always run the game store Kame Game on the ground floor of the building called "Dice Studio". It was a gamers and collectors dream, a game store run by a gamer for gamers. He carried not only games produced in Japan but those produced in other countries like America and could always be counted on to secure any rare or obscure game a customer wanted. Now that he was dead, the future of the store was up in the air. His daughter wasn't much of a game enthusiast and his grandson was still in high school. But for today, the store was closed. 

Above the ground floor store were a few levels of two-story apartments and it was in one of those apartments that the Muto family lived. Currently, Kyoko, Yugi, and Rebecca were sequestered in the kitchen of Yugi's home. When they had arrived, Yugi had immediately procured the small wooden box and letter that Sugoroku had instructed to be given to his old friend Arthur Hopkins. Then the two teenagers and one child had given him some privacy in the living room. 

"So in that box is Blue Eyes White Dragon?" Rebecca demanded to know, slamming both hands on the table and glaring at Yugi eye-to-eye. "It is Blue Eyes White Dragon isn't it? You aren't trying to trick my Grandpa and keep it all for yourself are you?!" 

Yugi sweated under her rapid-fire questions. "Why would I want to trick your grandfather? My grandfather put it in his will that he wanted Hopkins-san to have Blue Eyes back." 

"Humph!" the little girl snorted, plopping back in her chair. "Just goes to show what you know. That Blue Eyes White Dragon card you know? There are only _four_ of those cards in the entire Duel Monsters. And not only are they very, very, very rare they are super-strong to boot! But I suppose you wouldn't know anything about Duel Monsters over here in Japan," she shrugged with a superior air. 

This time, both Kyoko and Yugi sweatdropped. It was true that Duel Monsters, a trading card game produced by an American company called Industrial Illusions, was a huge hit in America ever since it was introduced seven years ago. Any cards in Japan were imported from America and anyone who knew or played the game was an enthusiast. Naturally, Sugoroku was one of those enthusiasts and had introduced the game to his grandson. Kyoko had moved from America to Japan only this past spring and had a passing interest in the game. Her skill as a player had been growing over the months thanks to Sugoroku's and Yugi's tutelage. In fact, it had only been last month when Sugoroku had pulled out his precious Blue Eyes White Dragon card to show the two of them. He didn't keep it with his other cards and didn't use it to duel either. Yugi remembered Kyoko commenting on how lonely the card must be, always kept separate from the others and never used. Sugoroku had only laughed gently and patted her on the head. 

"The card must go back to my Grandpa because it's his card and then naturally he's going to give it to me," Rebecca announced proudly, puffing out her chest like a strutting rooster. Yugi irrelevantly noticed that her freckles stood out against her skin under the kitchen lighting. 

"Because you're his granddaughter?" Kyoko asked so innocently that Yugi knew she was teasing the younger girl. It wasn't a very nice thing to do considering that they were the elders by nearly five years. Having been picked on a lot at school, Yugi knew how it felt to be on the merciless receiving end. But with his growing confidence in himself, he knew how to recognize some mostly harmless ribbing. Besides, Rebecca's attitude was getting on his nerves. He did his best to fight back a snort, knowing where this was going. 

"No. Because I am the United States National Duel Monster Champion!" She looked triumphantly across the table at the two older ones. Even if they didn't know what Duel Monsters was, they surely must understand the achievement of being a _national_ champion. 

"I remember reading that in the Duelist Magazine!" Yugi exclaimed, eyes wide with admiration, half-sincere, half-mocking. True, it was quite a feat for someone of her age to become National Champion but that wasn't everything. "They called you the Genius _Junior_ Tournament Champion!" 

Rebecca started and glared narrowly at Yugi, trying to figure out if he was making fun of her. His face was all innocence. Kyoko suddenly stood up and ran out of the kitchen, rambling something about getting something or other, but all she did was burst out laughing in the hallway. 

The blonde American girl tugged on one of her pigtails as she fumed. Okay, so they apparently knew more about Duel Monsters than she had thought. There were two divisions in Duel Monsters tournament play, Junior and Expert, and of course privately sponsored tournaments had their own custom rules. She was certain they were making fun of her and that they had no intention of returning Blue Eyes to her Grandpa and of course her. Rebecca was only right about half of that. Well, she knew how to show them who deserved to keep the card. 

Rebecca slammed her deck of cards on the table, smirking. "Alright, so you seem to know something about Duel Monsters then if you read the Duelist Magazine and recognize who I am. What about a duel? Standard Junior rules, we don't want to be here all night. Best two out of three wins with the ante being Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Her smirk grew at Yugi's widening eyes. "You do have a deck don't you?" 

"Well...yes..." What was the point of dueling when the card was already returned to her grandfather? Of course, Rebecca didn't look like she was going to take 'no' for an answer. Maybe a _little_ duel wouldn't hurt...would it? "Let me go get my deck," Yugi excused himself meekly. He almost tripped over Kyoko who was sitting in the hallway still giggling. 

"Where are you going?" she asked, getting up. Apparently, she hadn't heard that last conversation. 

"Getting my deck." Yugi tugged his tie loose and yanked it off. If he was going to his room, he was going to at least drop off his tie and jacket. Letting them fall on his bed, his mother was probably going to yell at him for that later, Yugi opened his desk drawer where he kept his cards and paused, looking at the two decks and miscellaneous cards scattered there. The cards were of course all in English but he could say the names for all of them thanks to his grandfather's and Kyoko's coaching and he already knew what effects they could produce if any. One of the decks was his own, his usual deck for when he was dueling with his grandfather or Kyoko. That brought a sad smile to his face. The other deck was his grandfather's. Sugoroku had even included in his will to whom which of his Duel Monster cards would go to. Kyoko and a few of Sugoroku's friends had been given cards, some of their favorite cards even, but Sugoroku's deck had gone to Yugi. His hand hovered over the deck, remembering the last time they dueled. But no this wasn't his grandfather's duel, it was his. Yugi snatched up his dueling deck and a dueling field mat then returned downstairs. 

"You're going to duel her?" Kyoko looked at him incredulously when he came back down cards and mat in hand. She rolled her eyes after Yugi explained over what exactly they were dueling over, knowing how pointless this was. If it had been her, she would have refused to duel Rebecca. It was one thing to duel the younger girl as a test of one's dueling skills but this, this was no reason at all. "I have to watch this." 

Rebecca was waiting expectantly at the kitchen table when the two returned. Yugi spread out his Duel Field mat. They shook hands, Yugi gingerly, Rebecca smugly. Kyoko watched as both players shuffled their respective decks and then handed it over to the other to cut. Finally, they set their decks down on the Deck Zone of their respective sides of the mat. 

"Duel!" 

* * *

Rebecca won the first duel, preening over her victory as the only possible result of dueling with her. Her confidence was such that she didn't bother exchanging any cards with her Side Deck before the second duel. For that matter, Yugi didn't either. And he won the second duel in only four turns. 

"WHAT?!" Rebecca shrieked, staring at the impossible. She had lost? And in only four turns?! 

"That was a good draw," was the only comment Yugi made as he reassembled his deck after switching out some cards. Kyoko gave him a thumbs-up sign from where she was sitting. Though there was news in the gaming community of the upcoming release of Duel Monsters in Japan, there were still precious few duelists. Generally, the three of them only played among themselves and the few enthusiasts that would drop by for a dueling session. Neither of them had ever beaten Sugoroku though they had been able to steal a duel or two from time to time. 

"Yes it was." The American girl was suddenly calm again, picking up her side deck and discarding fifteen cards from her current deck. All of the new cards were added in. She smirked as she met Yugi's eyes again. "But lightning doesn't strike twice." 

With one win each, this last duel would settle who would win the set. The new additions to both of their decks threw the outcome up into the air. Kyoko had a good idea of what Yugi possibly had in his deck, it had only been an exchange of three and experience gave her an insight to his deck composition, but Rebecca had replaced over a quarter of her deck. So she was getting serious now. Rebecca really wanted that Blue Eyes White Dragon card back and Kyoko was sure Yugi had noticed it as well. He was more empathic than she was. As much as Kyoko wanted to see Yugi win and deflate that little girl, she was fairly certain that Yugi wasn't going to win this duel or game. It was only now a question of how. 

"Duel!" 

Even intent on the game as she was, and the duelists were oblivious to everything else but each other and the field, Kyoko sensed Rebecca's grandfather hovering outside the kitchen door. He noticed her looking at him and shook his head, raising a finger to his lips. So he didn't want her to reveal that he was there. Kyoko let her eyes return to the table and the duel. Rebecca's cemetery was growing larger, mainly with Critter and Witch of the Black Forest cards. Both of those cards had the special effect of allowing the player to draw a monster of 1500 Attack or lower from the deck once the monster was destroyed. Yugi was having a bit of trouble now with the Millenium Shield and Magnetic Ring combo Rebecca had placed on the field. Even with the penalty applied by the Magnetic Ring, dropping the Millenium Shield's Defense rating to 2500, Kyoko couldn't remember Yugi having any monster with a non-boosted Attack rating to cleanly defeat it. Plus the Magnetic Ring forced any attack Yugi announced to target the Shield. With a tactic like this, Kyoko could see how Rebecca would make it far into the championships. Until that Shield combo was destroyed, Rebecca could attack her opponent with ease like she was doing now with that Cannon Soldier which could directly attack the opposing player with a monster sacrifice. 

:_Well, there might be one combo Yugi could pull...if he can draw the cards._: 

"I summon Catapult Turtle." Yuugi placed the card down on the mat next to his Summoned Demon and then turned over a reversed magic card. "With Brain Control, I can control of one of your monsters for one turn." 

Rebecca's eyes narrowed. "That won't do you any good as long as the Magnetic Ring is in play!" 

"I choose Millenium Shield!" Unbidden, an image of a popular children animation show popped into Yugi's mind as he said those words. That almost exact same phrase was always used in it. Oh well. "And sacrifice it to the Catapult Turtle! Of course, since the Shield has a zero Attack rating, you won't get any damage." 

"But the Shield and the Magnetic Ring will be destroyed," Rebecca growled in a very unladylike manner. With the Summoned Demon's attack on the Cannon Soldier, her cemetery grew by three more cards. Had her earlier cards only been used for buying time until she could pull this combination? That may have been possible but relying only on this strategy wouldn't have made her a national champion. Yugi frowned behind his cards. 

"Turn end." 

Her frown suddenly turned upside down. Rebecca drew a card, adding it to her hand, and then played a monster face-up in Attack. "I summon Shadow Ghoul! And with ten cards in my graveyard, its Attack rating is boosted to 2600. More than enough to take out your Summoned Demon!" 

:_So that was what she was really aiming for._: Yugi drew another card and placed it in his hand. It had been a possibility considering how easily she had been sending monsters to the cemetery that she was planning something that required a certain number of cards there. Yugi didn't really like that strategy; it belittled the value and feelings of the cards. It was unavoidable that monsters would be destroyed but to deliberately continue sending monsters there just to boost up another monster's power... Well, not everyone was taught to treasure cards like he and Kyoko were. 

"I play Mahah Vairo in Defense." Neither of Mahah Vairo's ratings would be able to withstand an attack from Rebecca's boosted Shadow Ghoul but Yugi had an idea of a way to defeat it. He already had two cards reversed on the field and if he could draw the one other card he needed in his next turn... 

"Well, I guess you don't have any other monster you wanted to put out to buy you time," Rebecca gloated, eyes glinting. She had an eye on those two reversed cards on Yugi's field. However, one had just been placed down and the other had already been there. If the older one was a trap, it hadn't activated yet. "I place a monster down in defense. Shadow Ghoul attack!" 

Yugi flipped over one of his reversed cards, the newer one. "Nullify Attack! Shadow Ghoul's attack is negated for this turn." 

"Hmph." Rebecca had assumed as much. But now he didn't have that card to use anymore. On her next turn, she could still have her Shadow Ghoul attack Mahah Vairo. It only remained to see what other wall monster Yugi would put up. But as far as she was concerned, the game and the Blue Eyes White Dragon card were in the bag. 

"My turn." Yugi stifled a long-suffering sigh. He had to admit that Rebecca was a good duelist even if he didn't really like her strategy. Her arrogance could be excused for her young age and all of the fame and recognition going to her head. She had put down that reversed monster as a taunt of her invulnerability and a challenge. If he defeated it, it would give her Shadow Ghoul another 100 Attack points. Yugi looked at his current hand. He had deliberately chosen to play Mahah Vairo instead of this other card. He drew the top card from his deck and looked at it. 

He put it back down on the deck. "I lose." 

Kyoko sighed and closed her eyes for what was coming up next. 

Rebecca blinked and then jumped up and cheered. "Yatta!! I won! Blue Eyes White Dragon is mine!!" 

::_It's actually your Grandfather's_:: was the exasperated thought running through both Yugi's and Kyoko's mind. 

"That game was for Blue Eyes White Dragon was it?" Arthur Hopkins finally stepped into the light of the kitchen, holding up in his hand the contested card. Rebecca gave a little shriek, in joy or surprise no one was really sure, and ran up to her grandfather. But he held it above her reach. "Now, now, Rebecca. Where are your dueling manners?" 

Rebecca winced and looked suitably chastened. She held out her hand to Yugi, sounding appropriately modest as she said, "That was good duel, Yugi." 

"Thank you. It was an honor to duel with you," he returned, firmly shaking her hand. But when he moved to clean up, Arthur's hand stopped him. 

"I would like to tell you all a story," the old man smiled, forestalling any moves to put away the card game. With a look at Yugi, he picked up the card on the top of Yugi's deck, the one he had placed back down after looking at it. Arthur looked at the card and a sad, nostalgic smile touched his face. "As you know, Sugoroku and I have been friends for a number of years. I am an archaeologist by profession but for a long time I have been working to prove the connection between Duel Monsters, this card game that you children are playing, and a similar game played in Ancient Egypt." 

"They had cards in Ancient Egypt??" 

"Yugi, they didn't even have paper, just papyrus. How can you expect them to have cards?" Kyoko pointed out, rapping Yugi's head with her knuckles. For all of his gaming skill, the boy's mind always went on vacation when it came to school. Her help had kept his test scores stable in the top half of the class but it was always an uphill battle. 

"Not cards exactly," Arthur looked amusedly at Kyoko's and Yugi's repartee, "but a number of the images on the Duel Monster cards are similar or the same as those found on several stone carvings from that ancient civilization. Of course, it may simply be coincidence and the creator of the game's current incarnation won't answer my questions about it...still, there must be something for the game to surface twice in only the span of about fifty years." 

"Twice?!" both Yugi and Rebecca gasped. 

"Yes. It isn't very well remembered now." Professor Hopkins looked at Kyoko, the only one who didn't appear surprised by that piece of information. "As a card game, what you play now is the second time this card game has been circulated. Do you know anything about this? Miss...?" 

"Suomi, Suomi Kyoko," Kyoko introduced herself. She hadn't been surprised because she had already known about this though she had never told anyone. Why bring it up when it was something only the elderly would still remember. "I know that about fifty years ago the Duel Monster card game with slightly different rules than now but similar in content first was produced in Japan and later spread to the United States and Canada. The creator had enjoyed another trading card game called Magick: The Congregation but found it a bit overly complicated. He created Duel Monsters out of a mix of what he liked in that game and inspirations he derived from a trip to Egypt..." 

Now Yugi and Rebecca were staring at Kyoko slack-jawed, especially the former. Kyoko had never told him about this! He had thought she only knew about it because she had come from America. But to think that the card game used to be played when his grandfather had been young, and possibly even further back in Ancient Egypt...! 

Arthur nodded. "Yes you are correct. Very few of us remember it well, Sugoroku and I were two who did. About five years ago, I invited Sugoroku to Egypt on a dig of mine where we unearthed some of those stone carvings. However, the cavern was quite old and the supports caved in, trapping us two old men with a single lantern, one canteen, and a lot of free time." He looked fondly at the cards still laid out in the kitchen table. "To pass the time away, and to gamble on who would get the canteen of water, we had a duel. Watching you dueling against my granddaughter brought back memories of that time." Arthur patted Rebecca's head fondly. "To think that the exact same hands would be played...even over five years later... it must be that spirit of the cards that Sugoroku always told me about." 

"So who won?" Rebecca interrupted impatiently. "You did right? If Yugi and I were dueling just like did back then, then you won right?" 

The old man suddenly looked very, very old under the lights. "Sugoroku acceded victory to me, just as Yugi did to you. At the time, I was very dehydrated and Sugoroku noticed that. He let me win so I could have the water. Just as Yugi let you win so you could accept having Blue Eyes White Dragon." 

"EH?! But there's no way he could have won!" 

Arthur revealed the card that Yugi had set back down, a trap card that when activated would remove five cards from the opponent's cemetery. In this case, that would have meant that Rebecca's Shadow Ghoul would have lost 500 Attack points to its rating, dropping it to 2200. 

"But Mahah Vairo still can't beat my Shadow Ghoul with that!" 

"You think so? Let's have a look at the rest of Yugi's cards shall we?" He turned over the remaining reversed card on Yugi's field. "Book of Secrets which gives a 300 boost to both Attack and Defense of Magic User monsters. Equipping this to Mahah Vairo would boost its attack to 1850 and the activation of its special effect would push it to 2350. Your Shadow Ghoul would have been defeated, Rebecca. But that isn't all. Yugi, would you please show me your hand?" 

Yugi was bright red but he complied with Arthur's request. This was too embarrassing. 

"Black Magician. Thunder Bolt. Four Star Death Ladybug." Rebecca stared at Yugi's now revealed hand. The Thunder Bolt magic card alone could have destroyed all of her monsters. The Four Star Death Ladybug has the flip-over effect of destroying all Level 4 monsters on the field. The Black Magician could easily destroy her reversed monster card which remained to be revealed. He could have defeated her and won but he didn't. 

"Why...why did you have these cards and not use them!!" she shrieked. He let her win! How dare he treat her like that, as if she couldn't win on her own! 

"Because Yugi is a kind boy and he knew that you would never accept having Blue Eyes without feeling that you earned it. It was not the victory that was important but the result of that victory. You are very much like your grandfather, Yugi." 

Yugi's beat red face studied the suddenly very interesting swirls of the wooden kitchen table. 

"Yeah, same hair, same height," Kyoko coughed behind her hand before ducking under Yugi's swinging arm. She gave him a thumb's up. "You're just a big softie under all that leather you like to wear." 

"Now then Rebecca," Arthur held out the contested Blue Eyes White Dragon card to his granddaughter, "I gave this card to Sugoroku five years ago as a sign of our friendship. He has returned it to me now, not because our friendship has ended, but because he felt a new one could now be started. As my granddaughter, I give it to you. What do you wish to do with it?" 

Rebecca took the card into her hand and looked at it. With this card, she could be near unbeatable in any duel tournaments from now on. As national champion it was only fitting for her to have the most powerful card in the game. She had won this card! She had...she had... 

"Here!" 

Yugi looked at the Blue Eyes White Dragon card held out in front of his face. Rebecca was looking away. 

"You're the one who won so Blue Eyes goes to you." 

"But Rebecca..." 

"Just take it already!" she snapped and Yugi reflexively took it. The blonde finally turned her angry green eyes on him. "But that's just for now. I won't accept winning that way. Next time we duel it will be different. I'll beat you, and everyone else, even without Blue Eyes White Dragon!" 

Arthur smiled approvingly at his granddaughter who was still pouting. It was getting late and the weather forecaster predicted the storm was only going to get worse into the night. Arthur Hopkins and his granddaughter said their farewells and Yugi and Kyoko saw them to their taxi. 

"Alright then. I look forward to our next duel," Yugi smiled to the young girl holding out his hand after shaking hands with her grandfather. Rebecca turned red, barely touching his hand, and then jumped into the taxi. The boy blinked. 

"Oh dear," her grandfather murmured, following after his wayward granddaughter. "I don't think this is going in the direction of friendship. Until next time, Yugi." 

"Did I make her angry again?" the boy wondered out loud as he and his friend watched the taxi leave. 

Kyoko only laughed and shook her head. "I'd better be going home too. You are such a lady's man, Yugi." 

"Huh?" He sincerely had no idea what she was talking about. So she put it in clearer words. 

"It looks like you have two loves in America now," she grinned evilly. 

"Two?" He had told Kyoko about his crush on his childhood friend Mazaki Anzu who was currently studying to be a dancer in America. It was perhaps not the wisest thing he's ever done since she loves to tease him about it. But what did she mean by two... Rebecca's red face floated into Yugi's mind. "WHAAAAAT?!?" he cried, almost dropping his umbrella. "But...but..." 

Kyoko's grin only grew wider. 

"But she's only eleven!!" he protested. 

"Like I said, lady's man," Kyoko called back as she began walking home. "I think I should warn Anzu about this! She might come all the way back just to defend what's hers." 

"Kyoko!!" Yugi was turning red a lot tonight. Well, he could give as good as he got. "Hey, isn't your boyfriend going to give you a ride home in his limo?" 

"Kaiba is not my boyfriend!" 

"I didn't say any names!" 

Whatever Kyoko said in reply, which was certainly not very nice or polite, was lost in a clap of thunder. 

* * *

Yugi rolled over on his bed, unable to sleep. His crushed tie and jacket, from when he jumped onto the bed, lay discarded somewhere on the floor wherever he threw them. Oh well. It had been one very, very long day between his grandfather's funeral and that bout with Rebecca. Yugi had hoped to catch some sleep finally but sleep wasn't coming, no doubt due in part to Kyoko's parting words. He hoped she wasn't right about Rebecca having a crush on him. That was the last thing he needed. 

Some people would probably think that him playing card games on the same day his grandfather was buried might be disrespectful. Truthfully, Yugi hadn't been thinking about it at the time but reflecting back now, it was probably one of the best ways of remembering him. After all, Sugoroku had taught him how to play and they've played countless duels and other games. It was better to remember the good times. 

But still...this was the second time that he lost two people close to him. The first time had been when he was about five, when his parents divorced and he lost both his father and brother. And this year he lost Anzu and his grandfather. Of course, of the four only one was actually dead, the other three were just far, far away from him. At least Anzu wrote to him. And he wasn't utterly alone. He still had his mother and Kyoko who seemed more sister than friend at times. 

Lying in his dark room while the storm raged outside, Yugi could see the occasional flashes of lightning illuminate his room and the new box sitting on his desk. It was another thing his grandfather had willed to him, something he apparently had gotten in Egypt. Well, seeing as how Yugi wasn't getting any sleep right now he got up, turned on a light, and sat down at his desk to examine the golden box. 

There were carvings all over it, what was it called again? Hieroglyphics, a pictorial alphabet, one of two used by the Ancient Egyptians. Of course, it all looked like a bunch of random scribbling to him. On one side of the box was a raised symbol of an eye in gold but that was it. The lid didn't even open. 

"Well, that's nice. What am I supposed to do with a locked box?" Yugi held it up and turned it this way and that but there didn't appear to be any secret button or switch to open it. It was a box and there was something inside of it, he could hear the rattling of many metal things when he shifted the container. But he couldn't open it. He put the box back down on the desk and glared at it. It didn't budge. Maybe if he had Kaiba's patent glare... 

Yugi let his head fall with a thunk onto the desktop. It was okay, no permanent damage. His mother said he was thickheaded anyway. He was okay with his grandfather's death, really he was. He could handle it. He had support, he had family, he had friends, he wasn't alone, he could deal with it. 

Now completely ignoring the rain, lightning and thunder pouring outside, Yugi wished he were stronger. Not physically stronger, but, oh, how to put it? Strong like his older brother. 

"Yushin..." Yugi murmured, giving voice to a name neither he nor his mother had said in nearly ten years. It was his older brother's name and it used to be said a lot, usually with a lot of yelling and scolding. Yushin didn't need anyone, even at the young age they were back then. He could do anything and he could do it by himself. That of course included getting into trouble more times than either of the two boys could count. The funny thing was, it was actually _Yugi_ who got into trouble and it was _Yushin_ who had to bail him out. However, being the elder and usually the one with all the cuts and bruises, Yushin was the one who got the blame. 

Yugi couldn't help thinking now that perhaps Yushin chose to go with their dad to get away from him. After all, all he ever did was cause trouble for his older brother. Okay, so maybe some of those were done on purpose but his parents always seemed to pay more attention to Yushin and to a young child's mind that translated to more love. 

In Yugi's mind, Yushin was always the same age as when they were separated. He missed his brother terribly but he was also deathly scared of meeting him again. What could he say? That he was sorry for everything he did? What if Yushin hated him? Heck, Yushin didn't have to hate him, Yugi hated himself for what he used to do. If he had been more self-assured, if he was more self-assured, then he could apologize to Yushin. 

Okay, that was his wish. He wanted to become stronger so he could eventually meet his brother and make up. Too bad all the storm clouds blocked out the stars, Yugi chuckled hollowly to himself. Just when he comes to a resolution, this happens. No, wait, blaming the situation, the external factors that he had no control over, was not a step in the right direction. But really, what was the right first step? 

Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and the light on Yugi's desk flickered and went out. 

"Great," Yugi said to the darkness. "There goes the power." He reached out a hand to switch off the lamp so there wasn't some circuit overload or something when the power did come back on. His hand fumbled on the mysterious box, brushing the metal eye symbol, and something clicked. 

The boy blinked. Forgetting the lamp, he let his hands roam over the box. The lid, which had previously been sealed tight, was just a tiny bit loose. Yugi, holding his breath, put both hands on the box lid and lifted it with a quick jerk. No poison gas or needles came spewing out as far as he could tell. He was remembering too late all those tales of curses tied to Ancient Egyptian artifacts. But his grandfather wouldn't give him a _cursed_ item right? A little voice inside Yugi reminded him that his grandfather's will never mentioned anything about opening it either. 

"...oh well." What's done is done. Now to see what was inside. 

Yugi felt around inside the middle drawer of his desk for a flashlight he was sure he had thrown in there the last time his mother told him to clean his room. His hands closed around the cylinder handle. If the batteries weren't dead... Yugi pressed the button. 

Light poured from the flashlight. 

"And then there was light!" He had heard that in a movie he once watched, which coincidentally was about mummies and Ancient Egypt. Turning the light into the box, Yugi almost blinded himself with the reflected light off of the golden pieces inside. He poured them out onto his desk and examined them one by one. 

It was the strangest thing he had ever seen. The largest piece had a string strung through a loop but it was...odd. All of the pieces had a funky geometric look though some had smooth surfaces. It kind of reminded him of a puzzle, a really warped and twisted three-dimensional puzzle. Well, this certainly looks much more like what he would expect his grandfather to give him. 

"But did this really come from Egypt?" The pieces looked too shiny to have been locked up for ages. Perhaps if the interior of the box had been vacuumed sealed...like the Ancient Egyptians would be able to do that! Yugi set the flashlight down on its side so it could still provide illumination, leaving both of his hands free to mess around with the pieces. If it was really a puzzle, and if it had really come from Ancient Egypt, imagine if he could actually put it together! 

* * *

Some bird was chirping outside. Yugi swore that if he had a gun he would shoot it. Well, not really, but it was making a terrible racket that was buffeting his sleep-deprived brain. The sun was shiny over the wet streets of Domino City and right into his eyes, making it difficult to sleep any longer. His neck was sore and his back ached, Yugi realized he must have fallen asleep at his desk last night working on that bloody puzzle. 

He swore whoever created it was either a genius or insane, maybe both and probably demonic. Figuring which pieces went on the outside was easy, they had smooth slanted edges that matched the flat part of the largest piece. However, trying to figure out how all of the internal pieces fit together had been sheer hell. Yugi would get two or three together and then add the wrong piece in the wrong place and it would all fall apart. It was like it wouldn't stay together unless everything was put in exactly right. He wasn't even sure how long he had worked on it but he had gotten all but a few pieces when he decided to close his eyes for just a moment. Yugi turned tired eyes at the puzzle pieces...no, Puzzle! 

His purple eyes grew wide, staring at the completed puzzle on his desk. Had he finished it in his sleep? Hah, like that could happen. Yugi tried to remember whether he had actually put in the final pieces before falling asleep but the entire night, the part spent working on the puzzle, was a big blur. Oh, and the batteries in his flashlight were dead. He'd have to replace them before some emergency where he really needed a flashlight happened. 

Yugi stood up and stretched out his protesting muscles, cracking a yawn. Good thing today was Sunday. No plans except to run the store. What were they going to do about it? Obviously, he wasn't going to drop out of high school to take care of it but Yugi couldn't bear to think of closing it up or for that matter letting strangers take care of it. Maybe they could open it only in the afternoon... 

Turning around, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He wasn't dressed in his pajamas anymore but in some weird...clothes was the best descriptor Yugi could give it. He had on some black sleeveless shirt and a skirt, gold bands were around his neck, arms, waist, and legs, and he had on some weird purple cape. Was he still dreaming? 

"Anak tuphare iridon!" 

Yugi blinked. Had he just said that? Then he realized something else, two things actually. One, he didn't have a mirror behind his desk. Two, he could look through his so-called reflection. And to tack on a few more things, his reflection was floating a couple of centimeters off of the ground, was taller than him, and was glaring at him. A distant part of Yugi's mind noted that it was a glare worthy of his classmate Kaiba. The rest of Yugi just screamed. 

"GHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!!!!!!!!!!" 

* * *

* * *

_ Author's Notes_

Okay, this is currently my most stable attempt at a Yu-Gi-Oh story. Bite me, I always work best with AU-rewrites anyway. This story kind of starts right before the beginning so it may be a (relative) while before we get to the portions of Yu-Gi-Oh that the American audience is familiar with. I follow both the manga and the current episodes in Japan so I will more likely be using inspirations from them. I will also be using card names that are translated from the Japanese cards because those are the only cards I have. 

A funny thing happened while I was buying some more Yu-Gi-Oh booster packs the other day. The saleswoman, after she realized I could understand Japanese, asked if I was buying the cards as a gift or for myself. I said they were for me. She was surprised and said it was quite rare for a girl (to be buying Yu-Gi-Oh cards). 

Comments on Sugoroku's death:

In the very first chapter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga, Yugi gives Anzu a bit of a shock by saying that the Puzzle box is a memento of his grandfather's. She thought he had died and suffers a minor heart attack when she realizes he's still alive. I decided why the hell not and let the old man die. 

Comments on Suomi Kyoko:

I don't know how many people are actually going to recognize this name which is the exact name of a character in another manga series. However, it is not the same character, I just happen to like the name. As mentioned in the story, she is currently Yugi's only friend in school as Anzu is off in America. They hit off on the first day of high school after Yugi learned she plays a little of Duel Monsters. 

Comments on Arthur and Rebecca Hopkins:

These are actual characters that appear in Episodes 41-42 of Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters. I did not make them up. Rebecca developing a crush on Yugi just kind of...happened. I hadn't even planned for it in the story, it just came out while I was writing. Needless to say, this isn't the last we'll see of her. I noticed there are very few female duelists. 

Comments on Yushin:

I made him up. I also made up the name of Yugi's dad and Yugi's family situation. Yushin doesn't get to appear in the flesh until much, MUCH later in the story. But that doesn't stop Yugi from remembering him. 

Comments on Yami Yugi(?):

If you can't come up with an image in your head of what Yugi saw in the morning, take a look at how Ancient Egyptian Yugi appears in the Playstation game Shin Duel Monsters (Japanese) or Forbidden Memories (US). Of course, that's also how he's drawn in the manga flashbacks. I have a different take on the ancient ghost. Oh, and what he said? If you can figure out, write to me. 

theria@theria.net 


	2. Battle 2

Duel Legend  
Battle 2 - Wrath of the Sealed One  
By theria 

* * *

Kyoko was an early riser, always has been, always will be. She doesn't even need an alarm clock, she'll wake up at 5:30 am on the dot. It never failed. She also has never needed coffee in the morning, or ever, to stay awake. You'd think she was one of those morning people but she could also stay up late at night. It's knacks like these that will get her through college. 

But that was still three years away and right now, she was checking up on a few things online when her phone rang. The time on her computer was only 8:42 am. For her, she'd been up for a few hours. For anyone else, this was insanely early on a day when sleeping in was not only allowed, it was expected. Kyoko debated on letting the answering machine take it without even bothering to check who called. 

"Call from Muto residence," chimed the phone. It was set to recognize a few phone numbers and notify her who the caller was. But to receive a call this early in the day, the day after Sugoroku's funeral even, something serious must have happened over at Yugi's place. 

"Hello?" 

"Kyoko...?" Yugi's voice came over the line as a hushed whisper. Kyoko could just imagine her friend hunched up over the phone, hiding in a closet or a dark corner. It certainly sounded that way. "Are you alone?" 

"Yugi, I live alone," she dryly informed him. Didn't he already know that? No, wait, actually she never did tell him about her living situation. "Why are you whispering? For that matter, why are you calling at this hour? You usually don't drag yourself out of bed until noon on Sundays." 

"Um, well, something kind of... came up... something really... important..." 

Kyoko tapped her foot, waiting for Yugi to spit it out. Over the two months that she's known him, he had gotten better at expressing himself and not swallowing his opinions all the time. Still, there were times when he'd revert back to being timid. Like now. 

"Have you ever... you know... Remember that time you... you know... saw something... over by that shrine..." 

"Yugi," she cut in during a long lull in the broken conversation. He was a dear friend, kind of like a little brother, but she only kept up the facade of being patient with strangers. Her patience with people she knew was very short. "I am coming over to help out with the store you know. If you want me to come over earlier--" 

"YES!!!" 

She winced, holding the phone away from her deafened ear. First he whispered, then he yelled. What was wrong with the boy this morning? 

"You'll be right over right?! I'll be waiting! Come quick!!" 

The line went dead. Kyoko wondered if Yugi really was alright after yesterday. Well, it wasn't as if she was doing anything productive here and Yugi did sound rather desperate. 

* * *

Only a handful of people recognized an inconspicuous doorway off to the side of the Kame Game store as the entrance way to the apartments situated in the upper floors of the Studio Dice building. There was also a back staircase that allowed the Muto family direct access to the store from inside but it was only used when the store was open, which Kyoko was not expecting it to be. However, when she arrived at the apartment entrance, she saw Yugi waving to her from the store entrance. The boy looked like he had seen a ghost. 

"Alright then, Yugi, what's got you all worked up?" she asked after Yugi ushered her into the store. He kept looking around as if there was someone out there watching. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were scared of your grandfather's ghost." Kyoko kept her tone light and teasing because she didn't want to offend Yugi. 

"Not his ghost, _my_ ghost," Yugi confided after he ascertained that the ghost wasn't anywhere in the store. He was pretty sure it hadn't followed him downstairs but you never know. They can go through walls right? 

Kyoko just stared at him. 

He quickly tried to explain it to her. "You know how you say you can see spirits and such right?" She nodded warily. "I've never seen them but I believed you." Yugi knew he was babbling but really, what else could he do with his nerves the way they were? "And now somehow there is a ghost in my room, I just woke up this morning and there it was, it looks just like me but it's wearing funny clothes. It also looks pretty angry but I can't understand what it's saying. I wonder if it has anything to do with that weird puzzle I put together. Can you _please_ do something about it?!" 

Yugi tried to catch his breath after that long exposition. Kyoko was trying to process all of it and find the beginning of the waves of words he had thrown at her. Apparently, just talking about it was calming down the teenager as he finally stopped pacing around and just slumped on a stool. 

"Yugi, have you eaten anything yet?" his friend asked, eyeing his disheveled clothes and hair. A loud grumble answered her question for him. "Why don't we discuss this over breakfast, for you that is. Where is your mom?" 

As they went upstairs to the Muto apartment, Yugi explained that his mother had left for work, making up for the days she had missed earlier because of Sugoroku's passing. That had of course been after she rushed to his room after hearing him scream but he wasn't going to tell that to Kyoko. He had to retain some dignity after all. 

Fortunately, Akane had left out food for her teenage son and a note to Kyoko asking that she make sure Yugi cleaned up afterwards. He cursed whatever universal principle set down that parents must always find new ways to embarrass their teenagers in front of their friends. 

"Alright then," Kyoko started after Yugi wolfed down breakfast. "So this morning when you woke up you saw what you think is a ghost-" 

"I could see through it." 

"The term is translucent or transparent depending on the degree of opacity..." Yugi's eyes began to grow confused. She simplified the terms. "You can't see through something opaque, you can see clearly through something transparent, if you can makes things out but not clearly it's translucent. A window is transparent." 

"Why don't you just have a look at it?" Yugi pointed up the stairs. "He's still in my room. I hope." That was 'hope' in the sense that it hadn't moved to haunt any other part of his home, not 'hope' in that the ghost was still here. He displayed absolutely no intentions of moving from where he was sitting now. 

"You know, Yugi, unless you've strapped your cards to your body, you're going to have to go back up to your room to grab your deck for the demonstrations today." Besides being an extra pair of hands around the store today, Kyoko was also supposed to assist Yugi with the demonstrations of Duel Monsters as part of the promotion circuit currently going through the country. This had been arranged weeks before and couldn't be avoided. 

Yugi dropped his head into his hands and groaned. He really didn't want to go back up to his room and face that ghost again. That's why he wanted Kyoko to come over and do something about it. 

"Can't you make it go away or something?" he pleaded as Kyoko half-dragged him up the stairs. Just to buy more time, he dug his feet into the carpet. He was slightly reassured by the fact that he wasn't going up alone and that Kyoko wasn't feeling like going to see the ghost alone either. 

"And you suggest how? Asking it nicely?" she replied tartly. It was a pain really, and disturbing, being able to see spirits and the like. Besides the fact that some of them were really scary looking, the minute they realized you could see them they wouldn't stop pestering you. So she tried to ignore them most of the time. She had been working on that really hard yesterday at the cemetery. You have no idea how many spirits still lingered there. 

The only person who knew about Kyoko's unusual ability was Yugi, something she had confided to him after feeling comfortable enough around him. From experience, they both knew that Yugi couldn't see or hear spirits so it was strange now that he was claiming he could see and hear one, and that one happened to be in his room at present. Why would this be happening now of all times? What was different? 

"Yugi, didn't you mention something about a puzzle?" 

"Huh? Oh yeah." All thoughts of that annoying golden puzzle had almost completely vanished from his mind. For that matter, he still hadn't replaced the batteries in his flashlight, which was unfortunately still in his haunted room. "It was the other thing that jii-chan left me, some kind of Egyptian puzzle box. I couldn't sleep last night so I stayed up trying to put it together." 

Kyoko refrained from mentioning how the lack of sleep could adversely affect his growth. "Well, maybe the puzzle has something to do with it then. What _is_ this puzzle anyway?" 

They had reached Yugi's door, which was still ajar because Yugi had never returned to close it. From their viewpoint, there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary, unless you counted the mess in his room. 

"Did you make the mess or was it the ghost?" Kyoko asked, stepping cautiously into the room. If there was a ghost, she didn't want to scare it anymore than she was already scared of it. 

"How can a ghost make a mess if it can't touch anything?" Yugi wasn't taking a step into the room yet, not until Kyoko pronounced it ghost-free. He was fairly certain his room was clean, to his standards. Perhaps he might have knocked over some things in his panic this morning. "Well?" he asked desperately, risking a peek inside. 

Kyoko frowned as she walked up to Yugi's desk. She didn't see anything out of ordinary in the room aside from the mess of books and assorted games. The puzzle Yugi had been talking about must be that golden pyramid on his desk. She picked up and held the upside down square base pyramid in the sunlight. Funny, she thought it would be heavier if it was made of pure gold. 

"I don't see anything," she told him, turning around with puzzle in hand as she walked back to the door. "Oh yeah. Even though ghosts are generally intangible, some are powerful enough to collect their spiritual energy to move things. That's where you get incidents with poltergeist and such. Of course, if you have one of _those_ around, I'd say you're in a bunch of trouble." 

Yugi's purple eyes were as wide as saucers, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He was pointing at something behind her. Kyoko could feel the hairs on her neck raise, a very familiar sensation that she had learned to hate. Turning around, very slowly, she found herself looking eye to eye with one very angry Yugi, er ghost. 

He was rubbing his neck and muttering in a strange language, looking between Kyoko and Yugi. If he was disturbed by seeing himself, albeit shorter and younger, it didn't show. The ghost snapped something again. Yugi looked expectantly at Kyoko. 

"Hey, I don't know what he's saying either." She hissed, trying to cover up her unease. Kyoko had come across a number of ghosts but this one had to be one of the most powerful ever, it just screamed power. Maybe that was because it was old. The symbol of an eye on his crown was like the one on the Puzzle and on the box. For that matter, maybe it was because it was so powerful that Yugi could see it. "Your mom didn't happen to meet him too did she?" 

"She couldn't see it." That scene was still vivid in his mind, his mother bursting into his room after he screamed. She had walked right through the ghost, much to the ghost's surprise, and tried to calm him down. Akane had thought he had just woken up from a nightmare or something. Yugi had immediately pulled his mother out of his room, praying that the ghost wouldn't follow, which it hadn't. In fact, now that he was a bit calmer, thinking back to the chaos this morning, the ghost seemed pretty confused as well even if he was at the same time scary and angry. 

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. Yugi could see the ghost but his mother couldn't. There had to be something more to all of this and she couldn't count herself because she couldn't stop seeing spirits. Her eyes fell to the Puzzle in her hand, was it the key to everything? Well, the ghost hadn't appeared until after she picked up the Puzzle. 

"Yugi, take this." 

He looked at the Puzzle she held to him, and slowly reached a hand to take it. The minute he touched it though a bright flash went off in his mind. Distantly, he heard Kyoko's voice calling to him and more of that ghost's weird language. There was a thud and he realized he had fallen to the ground. The funny part was, he didn't feel a thing. 

* * *

The heat was unbearable, as was the dryness. He couldn't tell which was worse. It was like that last vacation his family went on before the divorce, when they went down to Okinawa in the summer. Yugi had gotten heatstroke and was forced to stay outside while his brother played on the beach. Why was he remembering that now? Oh yeah, it was hot. 

How could darkness be so oppressive, so hot? He always thought that darkness would be cold. He couldn't see anything, not even his hand in front of his face. The deepest darkness, so this was how it was. Yugi wouldn't want to be trapped in here for any period of time. For that matter, was time even flowing here? No definition of space or time, he could go crazy here. 

Wait, what was that? Yugi wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Did he just see a spark of light? Perhaps he was staring into the darkness so much his eyes are playing tricks on him. No, there it was again. 

A little spark of light struggling to survive in the darkness that consumed everything else and was trying to consume it too. It was coming closer to him. Yugi felt that if he could just reach out, he could touch it, as soon as he figured out where his hand was. How he could tell that the little light was being chased, Yugi didn't know, he just did. 

"Come to me!" he wanted to yell but there was no sound here. And yet, perhaps it still heard him because the light suddenly seemed to speed up and zip toward him, the darkness darker than darkness rampaging after it. "Hurry!!" 

The light shot through him and images flooded into Yugi's mind. Pyramids, dark-skinned people in white linen, large temples of stone, a flowing flooding river, the symbol of that eye. He was coming toward the back of a person with a purple cloak, a familiar cloak. The person turned around and it was the ghost, huge stone slabs rising behind as he glared at Yugi. Yugi recognized one of those slabs, or rather what was engraved on it. The ghost raised its hand and something on his chest began to glow. It was the Puzzle, the one Yugi had put together. He was wearing the Puzzle! 

And while staring incredulously at this vision, Yugi did not notice the encroaching darkness lunging forward to consume him. 

* * *

"Yugi!!" Kyoko cried, rushing forward to catch her friend as his eyes went blank, his body crumpling like a limp doll. Something had happened the moment he touched the puzzle, in fact, he was still holding on to it, tightly, despite the slackness in the rest of his body. She shook him but no recognition returned to his eyes. "Yugi, what's wrong?!" 

That was of course a stupid question considering how Yugi was in no state to answer her. It was just something someone had to say when something was obviously not right. 

But damn it, what happened? She had thought that the puzzle might have something to do with the ghost--the ghost!! Kyoko quickly scanned the room for ghost. Had he done something to Yugi? But no, he was also kneeling next to Yugi, futilely trying to slap the boy's face with a hand of no substance. From his actions, he was trying to wake Yugi up so Kyoko decided it was safe to assume that he wasn't responsible. However, that meant there were two of them here who had next to no idea what was going on. 

Kyoko moved to check Yugi's pulse and froze. His skin was deathly cold, far, far too cold for a normal living person. But he wasn't shivering. This was no normal type of cold. 

"Kuramyk!" the ghost swore, or she assumed it swore, as it punched its fist into the floor. How was it that it could have made the mess in this room and yet was unable to touch Yugi? Was it not as powerful as she had thought? He looked like he was giving up, his shoulders slumping but hands clenched tight. "Ide quav nour arqak..." 

Kyoko felt a surge of... something run through her, not too unlike a static shock. The ghost felt it as well and both turned to look at Yugi's desk, one of the drawers opening on its own. She knew what was in that drawer. Something akin to light, but to her senses a spirit of some kind, leaped forth, forming a kneeling man before the ghost. 

If Kyoko's eyes were wide open, the ghost's eyes were probably just about ready to fall out of his ghostly head. The surprise was only momentary as he snapped something in that strange language of his and pointed at Yugi. Bowing his head low and murmuring something, the dark blue robed man became light again and disappeared into the Puzzle clutched in Yugi's hand. 

"That... that was the Black Magician!!!" Kyoko stammered, staring at the spot where the robed specter had been a moment before. Among the current number of Magic User type cards in Duel Monsters, the Black Magician was the most powerful Normal type. Yugi had one in his deck. "How...?" Actually, that wasn't as important as Yugi and where the specter had gone. "Where did he go? Why did he go into the Puzzle? Did you send him to save Yugi?" 

The ghost only looked at her with a mildly puzzled expression. He was much calmer now after the Black Magician had come and gone. Perhaps he did know what was going on, if he had ordered the Black Magician to go do something in the Puzzle without hesitation. A beam of light emitted from the Puzzle, this time forming both the tall Black Magician and a shorter, more familiar form. 

"Yugi!" 

Yugi blinked, blinded by the sudden departure from darkness. He had been looking at that vision of the ghost and stone slabs and then... what? Suddenly he was back in his room again, Kyoko gaping at him and oh no that ghost was still here and between them was, that was him on the floor!! 

"What's going on here?!" he yelled, taking a step back and walking right into someone. He looked up, there shouldn't have been anyone else in his room, and looked up into the face of the Black Magician. Yugi had seen the card enough times to be able to tell. "Black Magician?!" 

Kyoko took a deep breath. "Yugi." 

"Eh? Yes?" he turned back toward his friend. Perhaps she, or someone, could start explaining. Though he wasn't sure he could understand what the ghost might say much less the card-suddenly-come-to-life behind him. 

"Get back in your body right now!" 

Well, that was as good an idea as any other was. "But I don't know how-" 

Yugi was cut off by a curt shove in the back and before he knew it, he was falling toward his body. Like how was this going to help, he wanted to scream. 

* * *

"WAAAAAAAH!!" Yugi suddenly sat up, his heart going a kilometer a minute. The view of his room had changed again, he was looking at his desk. He had been on the floor and there was no Black Magician in sight. 

"You alright, Yugi?" 

Yugi looked into his friend's concerned brown eyes. What was she doing over here already, he wondered. Had he overslept and missed opening the shop for today's Duel Monsters promotion? She was going to kill him. But man, that had been one strange dream. 

"I just had the weirdest dream. There was this ghost that appeared in my room and I had you come over and then I touched this puzzle I had just finished last night and suddenly I was somewhere really, really dark and hot. The funny thing was I saw all of these things that I swear are from Ancient Egypt, even that ghost who looked like he was king there or something and there were these stone slabs that looked like they were from Duel Monsters. Or would that be the other way around? And he was going to attack me with them." Yugi scratched his head amidst all of his babbling. "Guess that story Hopkins-san told us last night had a bigger impression than I thought." 

Kyoko was looking at him strangely. 

"What?" 

She put her hands on his shoulders and directed him to look at his right. Sitting there was the so-called dream ghost looking very much real. And just beyond _him_ was the kneeling form of the Black Magician. That was, until the ghost made a dismissal gesture and the magician turned into light and went back into Yugi's desk drawer. That same drawer where the Duel Monsters cards were kept, his and his grandfather's. 

"Yugi," Kyoko said very carefully. "That wasn't a dream." 

* * *

"So you saw the Black Magician come out of a stone slab carving of itself? And it was the Pharaoh who looked like he was commanding it?" Kyoko was checking over their stock of table top role playing game books. Some types of games never died out, they simply evolved with the times. 

Yugi nodded, setting up the display case for the Duel Monster starter boxes. The store was due to open in an hour and they had to have everything ready by then. He hoped there would be a good turnout for the promotion event. All of their duelist acquaintances, his grandfather's friends really, had promised to spread the news. It would be great if Duel Monsters became as popular in Japan as it was in America. 

"It was really weird. And I'm sure it was Ancient Egypt I saw, just like in those Ancient Egypt movies." 

"Ah yes, I'm sure those are the perfect examples of historical accuracy," his friend grumbled. But it wasn't him she was grumbling at but the idiot who had put all of the books out of order. Was it so hard to put them back _by_ the catalog number so clearly printed on the binding?? 

"And the ghost was in it too." Oddly, Yugi didn't feel very scared of him anymore despite the threatening scene he had been faced with in the vision. The Pharaoh had a hard look to his eyes when he summoned forth the Black Magician from the stone slab and though Yugi couldn't understand his words, he understood on another level that the Pharaoh had ordered his servant to attack. But the attack hadn't been directed at him. 

"Wearing the Puzzle that you're wearing now. Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Kyoko did not want to go through another scare like that again. She had not missed the disappearance of Yugi's fear toward the ghost, due no doubt to his actions in trying to save Yugi from whatever happened to him and that vision he saw. 

Yugi looked down at the Puzzle hanging from his neck. He knew he saw it around the Pharaoh's neck in the vision but looking now at the ghost, who was currently looking fixedly at the Duel Monsters promotion posters, the Puzzle wasn't there. It just felt right to Yugi to be wearing the puzzle even though it was rather... ostentatious. 

Oh yes, and apparently, the Pharaoh, as they were calling the ghost now, was tied to the golden Puzzle, kind of like a leash. After a few incidents, they realized that he could only manifest about two meters away from the Puzzle. If the Puzzle moved, he would have to as well else be dragged. Yugi didn't feel any resistance, physically, but there was a faint sense of annoyance that wasn't his own. Kyoko told him that the ghost didn't look too happy when that happened so Yugi figured those feelings must have been coming from him. 

"I don't want to get rid of it if that's what you mean." Finished with the display, Yugi closed up the box and hefted it up. He gave a whistle to the Pharaoh to tell him that they were moving. "After all, jii-chan did leave it for me." 

Kyoko only shrugged, giving the bookshelf one final look-over before going on to check their supply of dice. "Your choice. He doesn't seem like an evil spirit anyway. Too bad we can't ask him how he did that magic trick with the Black Magician." 

"At least he remembers our names." 

After getting over their initial shock and fears that he might be a hostile ghost, the two living ones had tried to pierce the ghost's language barrier with only partial success. It had all started with Yugi digging out his Black Magician card and showing it to the ghost. They think he got the idea that 'Black Magician' was the name that they used for it. Based on his vision, Yugi pulled out some other cards that he thought would be recognizable to the ancient spirit but it was Kyoko who took the pieces of Yugi's idea and put it together into a semi-coherent organized whole. Obviously, they couldn't expect the ghost to pick up Japanese in one day much less a few hours. 

"So are you going to tell Hopkins-san about your vision? That would certainly support his hypothesis." 

Sure, if having a vision after touching a puzzle possibly from Ancient Egypt and had a pharaoh's ghost attached to it could be considered reliable, repeatable evidence. Kyoko and Yugi looked at each other and then burst out laughing in the half-lit store. They still had several more boxes to go through to as well as set up a dueling table. 

* * *

The ghost looked at the strange teenagers as they collected themselves and went back to doing... whatever they were doing in this place that held so many things. Obviously, he had his own thoughts but whereas those two, what were their names again, the one that looked like himself but younger was Yugi, the girl with long black hair was Kyoko, could talk to each other in their strange language, he could do nothing but think to himself. It was quite frustrating being unable to talk with anyone. 

It was also frustrating being tied to that golden pyramid thing that Yugi wore because it meant he couldn't stand or stay still with the invisible leash he was on. Being dragged around wasn't really painful but it was disorienting. For that matter, everything from this morning was disorienting. 

Everything was strange. Being a ghost was strange. Unfortunately, beyond the feeling that it was strange, he knew precious little else. The children, he just felt much, much older than them, had taken to calling him 'Pharaoh' whatever that meant. Though that blue-robed person, Yugi had called him 'Black Magician' had called him 'King' and apparently could speak whatever language he himself was speaking. He wished he hadn't sent him away, a gesture that had just seemed so natural. Perhaps that Black Magician knew something. Unfortunately, he had no idea how the Black Magician had appeared in the first place so he couldn't call him back. 

"Pharaoh!" 

The spirit looked to Yugi. Ah, the boy was moving again. At least he was being considerate now that he knew of the ghost's limitation. Of course, if Yugi wasn't wearing the Puzzle and walking around with it, there wouldn't be this problem in the first place. And yet, for some reason, he felt... better with Yugi wearing it. There really wasn't a good way for him to describe it. Admittedly, he was curious about Yugi, his look alike, about Kyoko, who apparently was the only other person who could see him unlike that woman this morning who walked through him, now that had been a disturbing experience, and about this different world that he knew nothing about. 

And then there were those small pieces of... he wasn't sure what they were made of but Yugi had many of them. For some reason, the spirit knew some of them though the names Yugi gave for them were unfamiliar and different. Somehow, he knew they were very important because they were just about the only recognizable thing to him but for what purpose and reason he had no idea. It looked like he would have to learn the language of the children before he could get any more answers. 

* * *

"Hey, Kyoko. You finished?" Yugi called over the noise of the crowded store. As promised, their duelist acquaintances had most certainly spread the news and a formidable crowd had formed even before they opened the doors at 1 PM. They had needed to pull out another table and gotten some of their duelist acquaintances that dropped by to assist with the demonstrations as the cash register was swamped. Whatever advertisement Industrial Illusion had used in Japan it was certainly working. 

"Just about!" she called back, wrapping up her shift of Duel Monster demonstrations. It was quite fun but after four hours of this chaos, she was really looking forward to some aspirin. And her 'customer' smile was wearing very, very thin. Kyoko finished up her last session and switched cashier position with Yugi. "Good luck on your duel," Kyoko gave him a pat on the back. 

Yugi looked pained. Since it was near closing, they weren't going to do any more demonstrations but were instead going to have a real duel for the customers to watch. Since one of them had to watch the cash register, only Yugi was participating in the set of duels with their roped-in helpers. 

On the other hand, the Pharaoh's eyes had lit up. He recognized the word 'duel' now and, having noticed the change in the set-up of the tables where the cards were being used, sensed that something interesting was going to happen. It was a bit disturbing though to look at him, if you could, because he had resorted to floating above everyone's heads to avoid being walked through. 

The remaining customers, both those with and without purchased decks, fell into hushed silence as the experienced duelists prepared to play real matches. And Kyoko had one of the best seats in the house to watch the ensuing duels. 

"Irashaimasu!" she automatically greeted as the door chime announced the arrival of a new customer about half way through the duels. Though reluctant to take her eyes away, she turned to look at who it was. "How may we help you?" 

And she could feel her 'customer' smile freeze on her lips as their newest client sauntered around the crowd in the middle of the store to come to a stop next to the cash register where she sat. 

"Hmph, so you work here?" There was an undercurrent of overbearing and derisiveness in his tone that just slipped itself under your skin like a splinter to drive you nuts. "Such a quaint little store." 

Kyoko reminded herself she was working right now and her personal feelings were not to interfere with her professionalism. Then she promptly told herself to stuff it. "Quaint enough to bring in the oh high and mighty Kaiba Seto. On your way home from a hard day at work?" 

You would think that they hadn't just seen each other at the cemetery yesterday. Yugi and Kyoko were both wearing jeans and black promotional Duel Monster T-shirts as well as little turtle-shaped nametags. Kaiba on the other hand looked like he had walked straight out of a catalog for men business suits in his matching deep blue jacket and slacks. A gold pin in the form of the Kaiba Corporation logo was affixed to his left jacket lapel. 

"Only some final preparations for the opening of an important project tomorrow morning," he replied, scanning the dueling tables with a bored eye. "The promotions seem to be doing well." 

Kyoko blinked and wondered if her hearing was going. Had Kaiba just answered a question directed at him, much less one relating to Kaiba Corporation? And he answered her? This wasn't such a groundbreaking event as to merit the sky falling but she made a note to look for any dead rising from their graves. No wait, that already happened. There was the Pharaoh who was floating from one duel to the next, watching with avid interest. 

"Yes they are. Isn't your company working with Industrial Illusions on something? I remember reading that on one of the gaming news sites." She said in reply to his earlier comment. "But you didn't come here just to see that." Her eyes fell on the very heavy-looking, metal case Kaiba held in one hand. "What are you doing here?" 

He didn't appear to hear her, apparently consumed entirely by the card-playing going on at the dueling tables. But the expression in his eyes, it wasn't one of interest or, more commonly, contempt. His eyes were blank, not really seeing anything in front of them as the person himself was turned completely inside of himself. Kyoko had seen this kind of expression before, only this morning. 

"Hey, Kaiba. Kaiba!" She tried calling again louder but not too much. It wouldn't look good to make a scene and she might accidentally disturb the duelists. Since he was still standing, she took that as a good sign that he wasn't succumbing to whatever happened to Yugi this morning if whatever did happen wasn't tied only to the golden Puzzle. Kyoko grabbed Kaiba's shoulder, the stool she sat on put her eye-to-eye with him, and gave him a good shake. "Earth to Kaiba! Come in!" 

Life returned to his eyes and he scowled at her, brushing off the offending hand. Ah yes, the old, infuriating Kaiba was back from his momentary trip to who knows where. If he started talking about mummies and ancient tombs, they were going to need a serious spirit cleansing of this building. 

"Did you want something?" 

"That was and is my line. You're the one who walked into the store. I just work here." Kyoko gave it up as hopeless that she could treat Kaiba as a respected customer, he just always seemed to rub her the wrong way. Common sense told her, and anyone else, that angering him was not the best of ideas, he did after all have the resources to bring hell on earth down on you. 

"Not with you," he answered curtly, eyes fixed again on the dueling tables but mainly, she noticed, on Yugi. "I have some...private business with Muto." 

"He won't be available until after the store is closed," she warned in the same tone. Even as she spoke, the duels were wrapping up on the third duel of the set as needed. Yugi had already won his first two so he and his opponent were watching one of the other duels. 

"I can wait." Closing his eyes, Kaiba appeared to settle himself against the wall, half covered by a tall, cardboard cutout of a demonic lord called Zork, showing no intention of moving or leaving. Apparently, he wasn't in any rush to go anywhere. 

Kyoko couldn't devote any more attention or thought as to what he was doing here because the last flood of customers, inspired and excited by the game play, were lining up to buy cards. She hoped their stock was going to hold out. 

* * *

"It's finally over," Yugi sighed in relief, stretching out his sore muscles. Between sleeping on his desk, manning the cash register, and sitting at the tables all afternoon, he felt like a beaten-up punching bag. He was going to sleep right after he had a long soak in the bath. A hand on his shoulder made him look up. 

It was Hanajima, a graduate student who lived about an hour away in the next city and was one of their duelist acquaintances who they had drafted to help out today. He didn't look too mad. "Looks like we got a lot of converts today." 

"Yeah. But it might be awhile before Japan can catch up to America in terms of dueling level." To say nothing of how many of today's hopefuls would stick with the game. 

"Now about my 'payment'?" 

"Oh yeah," the younger boy laughed nervously. Naturally, he couldn't get them all to completely volunteer their time, especially when they hadn't planned for it. Yugi ran over to the cash counter where Kyoko was going over today's receipts. "Kyoko, we still have some of the decks left right?" 

Without looking away from her calculations, Kyoko reached under the counter top to pull out the decks she had set aside earlier and handed it to him. "By the way, you have a guest." 

Yugi blinked. He looked around. Other than Hanajima and the others, all of the customers had left since it was after closing time. His mother wasn't supposed to be back until really late tonight but then, Kyoko would never call her a guest. 

"Over there in the not-quite all-concealing shadow," she pointed out Kaiba, still standing in the same position for the last half-hour. "He said it was something _private_." 

"Um, okay." Yugi had no idea why Kaiba was here and by Kyoko's tone, she didn't know either. There was also an undercurrent that implied that there was going to be something very bad happening if he had known and hadn't told her. "Kaiba-kun, I'll just be a bit longer." 

"Humph," was the only response they were graced with. 

With a sweatdrop, Yugi ran back to the part-time help and gave them their starter decks. It was more for novelty than anything else but Yugi couldn't fault them. He and Kyoko had also set aside boxes for themselves. 

"Hey, Yugi. I've been wondering for awhile now but what's Kaiba Seto doing at your store?" Hanajima asked, pausing at the doorway. "I mean, if you wanted to show-off a really good duelist, you should have gotten him to play." 

"Kaiba-kun plays Duel Monsters?!" That Kaiba, the one in his class at school and who ran a multi-billion yen corporation, played Duel Monsters?? Yugi wasn't sure if his brain could handle this kind of news. 

"You didn't know? Funny, I would have thought that he might have challenged Sugoroku-san but then, not many people knew how good your grandfather was." Hanajima gave Yugi a weird look. "Kaiba hasn't really played in any tournaments, not that we have any in Japan, but I've heard in some of the chat rooms that he's challenged certain top players to private matches and he's won all of them. Anyway, are the Dueling Days still going to be the same?" 

Yugi nodded. The so-called Dueling Days were once a month get-togethers that his grandfather used to sponsor at the store for all of their duelist acquaintances. They'd have their own mini-tournament and the champion, when he entered, had always been Sugoroku. Locking the door behind Hanajima and putting up the 'Closed' sign, Yugi returned back to the counter where Kyoko and Kaiba were. 

"Ano...what did you need me for?" He hadn't been able to figure out exactly what kind of 'private' business Kaiba might want him for. After all, it was only Kyoko who pestered him at school. It certainly couldn't be about yesterday. Kaiba had made it quite clear that he had no intention of speaking with anyone about his father's funeral. Maybe Hanajima had been on to something and Kaiba was here about Duel Monsters? That might explain why he had wanted to wait until everyone else was gone. 

Kaiba finally opened his eyes but only to give a pointed glare at Kyoko who had finished with totaling the receipts. She showed no intentions of leaving for this so-called 'private' talk without good reason. Besides, even if she left, the Pharaoh would still be around and by some warped logic, she felt that if he got to stay, she should be able to as well. That and she was dying of curiosity as to why Kaiba was here. 

Finally, Kaiba simply lifted up the metal case onto the counter, setting it down and snapping open the locks to reveal its entire interior packed with Duel Monsters cards. 

"Sugoi!" Yugi gasped, his eyes running and cataloging each and every card he could see. "These are all rare cards!" 

Considering how rare, super rare, and ultra rare cards were only about a fifth or less of the cards released in each new booster set, Kyoko figured they were made even rarer by the sheer number Kaiba must have in his case. 

"I'll trade all of these for the Blue Eyes White Dragon," Kaiba said coolly, a glint of something in his blue eyes. "Don't look so surprised. I've already spoken with Professor Hopkins and I know you have it." 

Rebecca had definitely been talking too loud at the cemetery yesterday.Well, at least Yugi knew why Kaiba wanted this to be a private talk and he was thankful for that discretion. Not even their dueling group knew that Sugoroku had that ultra rare and powerful card. It wasn't that Sugoroku was necessarily a greedy man but there were people in the world that would steal, perhaps even kill to get certain rare cards. And this card, rare yes because of its powerful and limited quantity, had been too important to him to risk losing. 

Kyoko wondered if Kaiba had come to the store directly from meeting with the professor. He couldn't possibly be carrying this case around with him all the time. It must weigh a ton with all of the cards in it. She had wondered for awhile now whether or not he actually played the card game or whether he simply had the joint project with Industrial Illusions because of the popularity, and near certain guaranteed sale, of the cards. 

"I'm sorry, Kaiba-kun, but I will not trade that card." Yugi steeled himself to meet his taller classmate's gaze. Obviously, it would have been easier to do so if they were of equal height. 

Kaiba's eyes narrowed. He was probably not used to refusals. Reaching into his suit jacket, for some reason Kyoko wondered if he was going to pull out a gun, he withdrew a checkbook. 

"Alright then, how much?" he asked tightly. 

Yugi shook his head. "I'm not selling it either." He was not backing down from this decision, no matter what Kaiba did or how much he was shaking inside. For some reason, one of his hands reached up to clutch the Puzzle. There was a faint sense of confusion, probably from the Pharaoh who had no idea why the two boys were facing off over that case of cards, or so it appeared to him. 

The young CEO's face was very pale, not with fatigue or anything, but with anger. How dare this... this... this boy refuse him. His mind raced through all possible venues and explanations to this unreasonable scenario. Yugi wasn't even tempted by either offer. If Yugi simply wanted to keep the card because of its power, that Kaiba could understand. However, his talk with the old American and his little granddaughter had told him that Yugi had been all but ready to give away the card to them, even to the point of throwing a duel. Obviously, that alone was a mark for contempt by the CEO and definitely a sign that Yugi was not fit to retain possession of the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. 

"May I know why you...refuse to part with it?" 

Kyoko could see the warning signs and she hoped Yugi could also. She didn't really think Kaiba would do something rash in the store, not with witnesses and security cameras present. Besides, his control over himself was much too good to be lost over something like this. Or at least, she hoped it was. 

"I don't know what Hopkins-san told you but this was a very important card to my grandfather. It was a sign of his friendship with Hopkins-san, of what they went through together. Even if it was just a normal card, even if it was a weak one, my grandfather would have treasured it just as much. The value of this card goes far beyond monetary or material value, it has a history, a soul, and that can not be replaced. I'm sorry, Kaiba-kun." 

Both Kyoko and Yugi jumped when Kaiba suddenly burst out laughing. It wasn't a nice laugh, not one filled with joy and delight, but with rancor and contempt. 

"A soul? I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised to hear such nonsense coming from you," he spat, eyes cold and condescending. "Cards are power and power is the only thing I believe in. Power to defeat any and everyone else. Don't give me that sympathy story about friendship, I heard all about your duel last night over the card. Of course, I agree with the girl that no self-respecting duelist would accept winning the card under such a farce. But you were quite willing to put it up as the ante for a duel and you just as willing took it back." 

"Hey, Yugi never had any intention of keeping Blue Eyes!" Kyoko was not going to just sit around and keep quiet while Kaiba tore up her friend. She wasn't the only one getting angry though. The Pharaoh, though unable to understand what was being said, was getting the distinct feeling that the tall brown-haired boy was menacing Yugi for no apparent reason. "The card was Hopkin-san's and Rebecca's all along. It was her choice to give it to Yugi!" 

"You stay out of this!" Kaiba growled. "It does not concern you." 

If there hadn't been a countertop and that open briefcase in her way, Kyoko probably would have attacked Kaiba for that one. Doesn't concern her indeed, he was the one picking an argument with her friend! Very violent thoughts involving the metal case and Kaiba's head raged through her mind. 

"Fine then. If you won't trade or sell it, then what about a duel?" Kaiba didn't miss the sudden wavering in Yugi's firm look. He allowed himself a smirk. "Like last night except this time, only one duel. You will stake Blue Eyes White Dragon and I will stake one of my own rare cards." He waved a hand at the open case. "Unless you feel that the worth of your card is worth all of this." 

"Kaiba, he already told you that-" 

"Alright." 

"WHAT?!" Kyoko cried, looking at Yugi who was perfectly calm after his announcement. Perhaps all of the shocks of the day were finally affecting his head. "Yugi, have you lost your mind!?!" 

"It's alright, Kyoko," he smiled as if all was right in the world. "You said before that Blue Eyes was lonely because he wasn't being used. Truth to tell, I'm not really sure if I'd use him either. But if Kaiba-kun wants him that badly, he must be willingly to use him. And if that's so, then I think Blue Eyes will accept Kaiba-kun if he wins him fair and square in a duel." 

Said 'Kaiba-kun' rolled his eyes at the way Yugi referred to the card as if it was alive, what sheer and utter nonsense. But, if it led to getting what he wanted, he'd tolerate it, for now. 

"Kaiba-kun, if you have your deck now, we can go upstairs to duel," Yugi gestured to the 'employees only' door that led to the back storeroom and the stairs to the apartment above. 

"Actually no, I have a better, more...suitable field for our duel." Kaiba's smile, if you could call it that, was definitely not nice, the kind a cat has when maliciously looking at an unaware, trapped mouse. "A field worthy of a duel for the rare Blue Eyes White Dragon. My driver can take us." 

He had left his driver outside of the store waiting all of this time? Kyoko was sure that Kaiba had not left the store since he came in and most certainly hadn't called anyone. Really, the rich could be so inconsiderate of their employees. 

"Okay." Yugi was going along with this way too calmly. 

"Any objections if I come along as well?" Kyoko asked, though her tone implied that she wasn't going to take 'no' as an answer. Kaiba simply shrugged, as you wish, snapped the metal case closed and left first, expecting them to follow. "Yugi, are you _really_ sure about this?" She almost bit back her words when she saw the bemused light in his violet eyes as he fingered his deck, slipping the Blue Eyes White Dragon into it. "Oh gods, you're looking _forward_ to dueling him." 

Yugi's grin grew wider. "You didn't hear Hanajima earlier did you. Kaiba-kun apparently is a really good duelist, what better chance could I get to duel against him?" 

When it came to games, Yugi's better judgement, if he had any, which Kyoko wondered at sometimes, generally flew out the window. She could empathize with that feeling since she's experienced it a few times herself. 

"He certainly isn't the type to accept an invitation to one of our Dueling Days," she agreed with a resigned sigh, hastily scribbling a note to Yugi's mother in case she came back before they did. The note said they were going out for a bit, that was true, with a friend, that was stretching the truth, and put it somewhere it was sure to be found. 

Yugi had their jackets, since their promotion T-shirts were rather flashy, and he locked up the store while she put hers on. They slid into the open door of the waiting limousine and were off. 

Kaiba was silent and studiously ignored the other two people as if they weren't even there. Yugi hummed a popular tune under his breath, watching the buildings and cars pass by through the window. He had never been in such a luxurious car before. Kyoko perhaps might have enjoyed herself more if her 'friend' hadn't played gentleman and had her enter the limo first, seating her next to Mister Personality Kaiba. Generally, she would enjoy picking on him but this whole duel situation wasn't allowing much levity. And of course, the Pharaoh was floating rather uncomfortably in the remaining space, seeing as how he had never been in, much less even seen one before. 

The black limousine came to a stop before a large building. In the darkness, it was hard to tell exactly what it was except that it was apparently not open for business yet. That didn't stop Kaiba who only gave the security a look before they opened the doors for him. Unerringly, he led them through the front entrance, which apparently had some kind of large statues in it, and into one of many rooms. 

Of course, it was pitch black inside. 

"Lights," Kaiba said smugly. 

Very bright, very strong lights suddenly flooded the room, raising cries of protest from Kyoko and Yugi as they were blinded. Kaiba had shielded his eyes. The room was actually more of a mini-arena with stands surrounding all four sides of a depressed ring in the middle. On each side of the ring was a kind of gondola stand, which overlooked the depressed grid-line field. The arrangement of those grid boxes looked very familiar. 

Without hesitation, Kaiba walked over to the blue stand. Following his lead, Yugi moved to the red one. At the stand, he found a marked display looking like half of a duel field mat and which matched the marked floor below him. 

"This is a new level of dueling, Yugi," Kaiba smirked from across the field. "I'm sure you recognize the layout of the dueling mat. Feel free to re-shuffle your deck though you'll understand that we'll be forgoing the cut." 

Kyoko stood leaning against the arena railing, not bothering to take a seat in the stand. Wherever they were, it was owned by Kaiba Corporation if the logo on the security guards' uniform were any indication. So was this then part of that joint Industrial Illusions-Kaiba Corporation project? 

And there was just something odd about the scene spread out before her. On one side was Kaiba looking completely out of place in his business suit and on the other side, in definite contrast, was Yugi with his windbreaker, T-shirt, and jeans. Add in the Pharaoh in his ancient linens hovering behind Yugi and Kyoko just had to wonder could there be an even more bizarre set-up. 

Probably. 

Kaiba won the coin toss for who went first. Looking through his hand, he chose one card and placed it down on the display mat of his stand. Neither of his classmates had ever seen him more animated, even if it was in an arrogant, conceited kind of way. There was no way he could lose this duel. "I play Cyclops in Attack!" 

The entire arena darkened as lights around the ring and on the stands blinking to life to allow the duelists to see. There was a rumbling sound, courtesy of the linked speakers set all around the room, and suddenly a green one-eyed monster roared into life on the arena floor. 

"What in the?!" Yugi stared at the literally larger than life monster. It was so realistic, he could see its shoulders rise and fall with its simulated breathing. Was this how it was when Kyoko saw the Black Magician appear in his room? 

The Pharaoh stared slack-jawed at the creature that had suddenly appeared. There was a shiver, a pulsation running through his body as he looked upon it. It was familiar, somehow, this scene, this sensation. What was it about these children and their 'cards' that seemed to echo so deeply with him? 

"Another one?!" But Kyoko immediately corrected her mistaken impression. Whatever this was, it was not like the Black Magician, she could sense nothing from this. It was just an illusion, a technological one. "Kaiba! Is this what you've been developing with Industrial Illusions?" 

"Humph. The Virtual Card Battle Simulator is entirely my idea," Kaiba snorted. He had been expecting more awe and was rather peeved that the two didn't appear more impressed, or surprised. "This Duel Ring is the next evolution of Duel Monsters. Turn end." 

Kyoko couldn't help but wonder then why they were still playing at Junior rules. Perhaps it was just as well. They had been demonstrating Junior rules all afternoon and Yugi's deck was not set up for Expert. There may be an advantage for Yugi in this but neither of them knew anything about Kaiba or his deck. 

Similar thoughts were running through Yugi's head. After everything that happened this morning, playing Duel Monsters on this Duel Ring wasn't going to phase him. Besides, he owed it to his grandfather, Hopkins-san, and Rebecca to test to see if Kaiba deserved this Blue Eyes White Dragon card. 

Why did he suddenly get the feeling like he was searching for a owner for a new puppy or something? 

"Well then, I summon the Fortress Protecting Winged Dragon in Attack." On Yugi's field, a large blue dragon with a big snout appeared. When you really came down to it, Duel Monsters was a number game with the higher number winning. Usually, players would have to rely on their own knowledge and experience to determine the numbers. But on the display of the stand were shown the points of the face-up creatures on the field. Handy but it went both ways. "Attack the Cyclops! Fire Stones!!!" 

The blue dragon took a deep breath and then spewed forth a hail of burning stones, engulfing the Cyclops in a rain of fire. It exploded, the echoes vibrating throughout the entire arena, and Kyoko could even feel the force of the rapidly expanding air from where she stood on the sideline. As the smoke cleared, she could see Kaiba lowering his arm, having shielded himself from the too-real effects of the virtual game. His life point meter dropped by 200 points. 

"I'll concede the first hit to you, Yugi," Kaiba smirked after Yugi ended his turn. "But the true battle is from here on out." 

* * *

"Tch." Yugi didn't get annoyed very often. Now though was one of those times. Ever since Kaiba had played the Dark Generator magic card with the Dark Clown Sagi, he had been destroying Yugi's defending monsters one after another. Kaiba had the lead in life points and in monster power. Yugi had yet to draw a card powerful enough to defeat the boosted Dark Clown. 

He wasn't the only one getting frustrated. There was a dark rumbling in his mind coming from the Pharaoh. The ghost wasn't happy with the way the duel was going either though Yugi wasn't sure exactly how much of the game he understood. Hopefully he had picked up something after watching four hours of demonstrations. 

"Yugi, you're disappointing me." Kaiba's voice across came out loud and clear. How nice to see at least one person was enjoying himself. "I was expecting more of a fight from someone who bested the American National Champion. Or perhaps she wasn't worthy of that title in the first place." 

"Kaiba-kun! I won't stand for your disrespectfulness toward Rebecca! She is a very good duelist. It was the cards who decided the fate of the duel!" 

"Of course, I'll agree with that. The cards do decide the duel, the most powerful cards." 

"No, it isn't just about power. It isn't just the duelist fighting but the cards as well. If there isn't a connection between them, if there isn't trust and faith, then no matter how powerful your cards are you will still lose!" 

"More of that nonsense. And where has your so-called faith and trust in the cards gotten you? It would appear to me that all your cards are doing, if they're doing anything at all, is leading you down the road to defeat," Kaiba chuckled darkly. "It is your turn, Yugi. Draw your card already and let's see your 'faith'!" 

"I believe in my cards Kaiba-kun. Draw!" Yugi glanced briefly at the card and placed it down on the display. "Come forth, Dark Knight Gaia!" There was an echo of glee from the Pharaoh. Yugi figured the ghost wasn't too crazy about Kaiba. "Attack the Dark Clown!" 

Kaiba's life points dropped to be on par with Yugi's after the destruction of Sagi. So Yugi still had a trump. Actually, there was also the Black Magician card but Kaiba knew that neither could stand a chance before _his_ trumps. 

"Not bad Yugi," he commented, drawing the card for his turn. An unholy sparkle touched his eyes. "But not good enough unfortunately. Too bad your 'faith' in your card is going to be so poorly rewarded. This is my card, Yugi, Blue Eyes White Dragon!!" 

A silvery-white, sleek dragon materialized on the playing field, bellowing its battle cry. Just looking at it struck a person with all of the majesty of its existence. It was one thing to know the card was powerful but to see it right in front of you... 

"Kaiba-kun, you already have a Blue Eyes?!" Yugi gasped as the dragon's blazing light breath attack destroyed his Dark Knight. But if he already had one, then why did he want Sugoroku's? 

With the resources Kaiba must have, Kyoko supposed that it was possible for Kaiba to have acquired one of the four cards in the world. After all, he did have an entire case full of rare cards and she doubted he got them all simply from buying boxes and boxes of booster sets. And if he already had one, if he was trying to get Yugi's Blue Eyes... 

"Just how many Blue Eyes do you have, Kaiba?" Kyoko yelled at him. 

"What??" Yugi's eyes grew wide. Did Kyoko just ask 'how many'? But there were only four in the world and if he already had one and Kaiba had one... they couldn't all be... Yugi couldn't finish the thought. 

"Fufufufu... very clever, Suomi. Why don't we just continue playing and find out?" Kaiba announced his turn's end. Yes, he figured she probably already guessed at the horrible truth, that there was no way Yugi could win this duel. "Go on Yugi. See if you can draw your grandfather's precious card. That's the only thing you have that could hope to stand up against _my_ Blue Eyes." 

Yugi frowned, adding his newest card to his current hand. Kaiba was right. Even boosted, none of the single monsters in his deck was capable of destroying Kaiba's dragon. It would only result in mutual destruction if he were to use his grandfather's card against it because he didn't have any boost cards that would work with it. If he did draw Blue Eyes, he would only use that tactic as a last resort. Yugi put down one monster card in defense and ended his turn. 

As Kaiba expected, Yugi was on his last legs. "You can relax for a bit, Yugi. I wouldn't want to waste my Blue Eyes' attack on whatever worthless monster you put down. Instead, I think I'll increase the number of monsters I have on the field." Kaiba's smirk in the darkness was positively frightening. "And Nike the goddess of victory is favoring me today. Come forth, my second Blue Eyes White Dragon!!" Ah yes, the shock and fear on Yugi's face was so satisfying. 

Kyoko groaned. The chance of Kaiba actually having all three Blue Eyes just became a near certainty. What she knew of Yugi's deck, he didn't have any means of defeating both of them. Though there was a way he could hold them off for a while... 

"I'll hold off their attacks until my next turn so I can destroy all of your wall monsters. Well, Yugi, go on. I have yet to see this vaunted 'trust' you share with your cards." 

Yugi knew he was at a bad disadvantage. Being only able to lay down one monster card a turn, even if he did put down another monster in defense, they would both be destroyed by Kaiba's dragons. Kaiba could keep repeating the cycle until Yugi ran out of cards in which case he would automatically lose. It was the only way he could lose, because he wasn't going to purposely place a monster on Attack with the Blue Eyes on the field. 

However, Yugi wasn't going to give up. There was a determination in him that he only rarely felt before, a determination he remembered always being in his brother. Hadn't he sworn to become stronger? On the sidelines, he could see Kyoko's shadowy form and though she had said nothing since her earlier outburst, he was certain she was silently yelling at him to bring down Kaiba. Next to him was the Pharaoh whose very presence gave Yugi the strength to stand up against Kaiba's verbal barrage. This duel, like the one with Rebecca, wasn't about winning. It was about trusting in the cards to bring about the right resolution. 

"Draw! Sealing Swords of Light!" 

About twenty blades formed of nothing but light rained down from the ceiling, trapping the roaring dragons. There was a collective sigh of relief from Yugi, Kyoko, and the Pharaoh. 

"A minor delay," Kaiba shrugged at this latest annoyance. Though the magic card's properties lasted for three turns, no monster he put down on the field during that period of time would be able to attack. Well, he had no worries about his Blue Eyes being destroyed. "But it would be boring if I did absolutely nothing at all so I'll set down one monster on defense. You may attack it if you wish." 

Yugi knew Kaiba was only baiting him. The destruction of that monster would have no effect on Kaiba's life points. It may even have a special ability that activates upon destruction. After this, he had two more turns of reprieve against his opponent's attack. 

He felt a presence looking over his shoulder, the Pharaoh, who was looking fixedly at Yugi's hand of cards. A ghostly finger pointed to three cards there, cards that had been slowly gathering in Yugi's deck. He couldn't discard them but he couldn't use them either. The Pharaoh pointed at the Puzzle hanging from Yugi's neck, to the three cards in his hand, and then his remaining deck. He was trying to tell Yugi something. 

"I already know," Yugi mouthed silently to the ghost, thanking it anyway for the pointer. His trust in the cards had gotten him this far. It would guide him to the conclusion. 

"Stretching out your turn will gain you nothing, Yugi. Draw your card already!" Kaiba was getting impatient. This was taking longer than he had allotted for. And for some reason, Yugi was not as terrified as he should be, faced with two, soon to be three Blue Eyes. Kaiba did not know exactly when the third one would be drawn but he had a feeling that it would be within these three turns. 

Of all the games he's played, Duel Monsters resonated the most with him. His instincts were never wrong, his chances of drawing the card he wanted always high. Some small-minded people may say it was all luck and Kaiba was not utterly taken up with himself to believe that luck didn't play some part. But it was more than that, much more. 

Yugi swallowed a retort. He didn't need to resort to Kaiba's intimidation techniques. Even as he drew his card for this turn, Yugi sensed what it was. Holding it up to look, more for the benefit of the Pharaoh than himself, he allowed himself a smile. 

The next set of turns past with little more than card drawing and monsters being placed on defense on the playing field. After all, no more than six cards could be held at any one time, and both sides had their reason for wanting to draw still one more card. 

"Well then Yugi it's down to the final countdown. Once I end my turn, my Blue Eyes will be free to attack you in the next one," gloated Kaiba. It was coming, he sensed, no he _knew_ what the top card on his deck was. "For my final draw... I summon my third Blue Eyes White Dragon!!! Turn end!" 

With those fated words, the light swords vanished allowing all of the dragons the freedom of movement again. It was almost like they were alive, rearing and stretching as if they really had been unable to move and not just prevented from attacking by a changed computer code variable. 

Kyoko had to admit that whoever did the programming for these holograms really did their work well. She could almost believe that there was a burgeoning spirit in them but there was nothing definite, nothing like that Black Magician or the Pharaoh. 

It was also getting a bit crowded on Kaiba's side of the field. 

Yugi didn't need to see Kaiba's face to know that there was a look of expectant victory on it, there were already the three dragons and the suffocating pressure of their presence and power. It was like a palpable force, this fear of impending doom, of imminent defeat. Kaiba wasn't his opponent, this was. 

He looked at his hand and then at his remaining deck. If one was to rely on probability, his chances were dismally low. However, Yugi was never that good in math anyway so he didn't know that. What he had relied on was faith, in his cards, in himself, something in part that his grandfather had given him and something that he had to create and believe in himself. 

But sometimes, it helped to have some outside assistance. 

Kyoko knew that this would be the final turn. She didn't know how she knew, she just did. It was something probably developed after so many duels. Unlike last night though, she didn't know the resolution of this match. It was only naturally that she wanted Yugi to win, because they were friends and because she didn't want Sugoroku's Blue Eyes to fall into Kaiba's hands. The way he was, he wouldn't appreciate the poor dragon. But as a duelist, she knew that realistically the chances of defeating three Blue Eyes White Dragons were exceedingly low. She could curse Kaiba for being greedy. She could curse Yugi for wanting to duel. She could curse herself for not trying harder to prevent this duel. But that was all in the past and had no bearing on this duel. Everything was up to the cards. Kyoko unconsciously murmured a prayer. 

Yugi gripped his Puzzle tightly, glancing briefly to his friend on the ringside. Even without being able to see her, he knew she was lending her silent support. He almost shrieked, nearly dropped his cards in his other hand, when a slightly chilly pressure squeezed the hand on the Puzzle. It was the Pharaoh's hand; Yugi could actually feel it. He looked up at the Pharaoh, at his confident eyes, his nod of encouragement. 

Kaiba resisted the urge to tap his foot, which would signal his impatience. Yugi was again drawing out time, drawing out his inevitable defeat. It was pathetic really, such petty desperation. Well, at least he knew that the short boy should be in the depths of despair right now. That was a consolation though not by much. He looked at his watch. He was going to be late. 

"Kaiba-kun," Yugi called across the ring. "I'll admit that your three Blue Eyes White Dragons are very impressive and powerful. But that's all. You may think this duel is like the one I had with Rebecca but it isn't. That duel wasn't about the card, but this one is. At first, I thought that Blue Eyes might be happy with you, so I accepted you challenge. But as we dueled, I realized I was wrong. Blue Eyes wouldn't be happy, and my grandfather's memory wouldn't be honored. Winning this duel isn't about defeating you or about keeping Blue Eyes. This duel is for my grandfather because even though we buried him yesterday, he will always be with us and I can't let him down." 

"Are you so overcome with hopelessness that you've resorted to babbling nonsense?" Where did Yugi get off spouting self-righteousness to him, talking as if he knew him, which of course he didn't. Hadn't it pierced his thick head yet that the only road open to him in this duel was defeat? Kaiba looked over to the ringside where Kyoko was standing. She had followed the entire course of the duel but even she wasn't despondent. In fact, she was smiling at Yugi. They were both smiling. Were they both just that utterly oblivious? Where were they getting this phantasmal hope from?? 

"I draw my final card, Kaiba-kun." Yugi placed his five cards face-up on the display grid. The computer read them and displayed the names for both players to read. 

"The Sealed...Exodia...!?" Impossible, Kaiba couldn't believe it. Yugi had all five pieces of Exodia in his deck?? And he had drawn all of them?!? "How can that be...that would take a...a..." 

"A miracle, Kaiba-kun," Yugi said quietly as the ancient chained god rose forth from the flaming pentagram floating above Yugi's field. "If you trust the cards, the cards will answer in kind. When that happens, anything can happen, even miracles." 

"Exodia! Hellfire Wrath, Exod Flame!!!" 

* * *

Yugi released a deep breath. He had won but he wasn't really satisfied. He had meant what he said to Kaiba, about this duel being for his grandfather. Defeating Kaiba here and now didn't feel like a real victory, he didn't have that feeling when he played with his grandfather or Kyoko. Yes, there was some dejection at losing but at the same time there was still the enjoyment of a game well played. 

"Kyoko!" he called, picking up his cards and running over to his friend. "I won!" he said unnecessarily, smiling widely to cover up his gloom, figuring that she would be happy about this. After all, she always said she wanted to see Kaiba be taken down a notch. 

"......" she muttered, head bowed. 

"What was that? I didn't hear you." 

Kyoko looked up, eyes blazing. Yugi gulped and stepped back but it was too late. 

"Since when did you have Exodia in your deck?! You took them from the deck your grandfather gave you didn't you! What were you thinking, not telling me about that?? Are you trying to give me a head full of gray hair?!" 

"Ah, gomen, Kyoko!!" Yugi yelped, ducking under her swinging arm. He hoped she didn't hit the Pharaoh by accident, even if it would probably just go through him. But Yugi was quite sure he had actually felt the ghost's hand on his during the duel. He looked to the Pharaoh who was looking into the arena, probably trying to figure out where all of the monsters went. "Well, should we go?" 

"I'm afraid we can't allow that." 

Yugi and Kyoko were grabbed from behind. Belatedly, they recognized their black suit captors to be under Kaiba's employ. 

"You may have beaten me in this one duel, Yugi." Kaiba finally straightened up from his hunched position over his duel display. Methodically, he collected his deck and slipped it inside of his jacket. He walked around the ring and came to a stop before them. "However, I'm afraid you don't quite understand the situation. If I can't have Blue Eyes, _no one_ can." His eyes were cold and empty. "Hand it over." 

"I will not!" Yugi yelled, struggling against the arm around his neck. The hold was too loose for someone of Yugi's size and he managed to wriggle out of it, kicking the man's shins for good measure. "Kaiba-kun, this isn't right, you know it isn't!" 

"Kaiba, you are out of your mind!" Kyoko added, jabbing her elbow hard into her captor's gut and then ramming the heel of hand under his chin. Those self-defense lessons certainly came in handy. However, a third man caught her by the back of her jacket, throwing her against the stands, and fired his gun. 

"Kyoko!" her friend screamed, prevented from running to her by a gun held to his head. She wasn't moving. At that close distance, the bullet... 

"Who gave you permission to shoot?!" Kaiba snapped, ripping the gun out of the man's hand and backhanded him with its butt. He ignored the man's murmured apologies. "Ky-, Suomi?" 

"...it missed...somehow..." Kyoko hoped it would just be left at that. Her mind had frozen when she heard the gunfire, her body falling back on old instincts. Other than the bruising from the throw, she didn't feel any other pain. However, she was feeling something else, a very powerful, very _angry_ surge of energy. "Oh no." 

"What-!?" Kaiba gasped as he was suddenly blown aside, slamming him into the wall, noticing only afterwards that his men were unconscious on the floor. Yugi was crouching against the ring wall, Kyoko still against the stand seats. Where the hell was this wind coming from? 

"Pharaoh!" Yugi tried to call to the spirit. This was him, Yugi knew it was. The ghost's anger had been pounding into his head, into him, ever since Kyoko had been thrown aside. 

Even though it may not have known what a gun was, he had apparently understood how close Kyoko had been to being killed. Or maybe he somehow picked that up from Yugi's fear. Whatever it was, the ghost was angry and his anger was pouring out manifested. He deliberately walked toward Kaiba, pinpointing him as the source of all of this. There was no escape from his wrath, just as there was no escape from the Sealed One. 

Kaiba couldn't believe he couldn't pull himself off the wall. No wind could be this powerful, certainly not one that had come out of nowhere. It tore away all sound, so he could see Yugi saying something but heard nothing at all. He suddenly realized the vision before him was hazy, as if he wasn't seeing it clearly. There was an impression of... a person? But there wasn't anyone standing in front of him, there shouldn't have been anyone else here. 

The Pharaoh raised his hand before the offender. 

"Mind Crush." 

* * *

* * *

_ Author's Notes_

Man, writing this was a bit tough. I had to get away from the computer twice for a couple of hours to figure out how I was going to write stuff. Even while I was writing, things just came out differently than how I had imagined or planned it. 

For example, that entire end sequence? I was trying to figure out how to do it for the entire time I was writing this chapter. I mean, I know I wanted the Pharaoh to Mind Crush Kaiba but the way I set things up, I couldn't do it the same way as in the anime or manga. 

Comments on the Pharaoh:

That's the only name he's going to have from now on. I think it only makes sense that the spirit, even if it doesn't remember much about itself, won't be able to speak Japanese. As for his language... I trust all of the readers will assume it is Ancient Egyptian even though everything I've 'written' is simply nonsense. 

I think I've been reading too much "Hikaru no Go". Fujiwarano Sai was a big influence on my depiction of the Pharaoh. 

Comments on Kaiba Seto:

He's actually a lot harsher, even more evil, in the manga than he is in the Duel Monster anime. I waver on how I want to portray him, due no doubt to the animosity my brother/sounding board has for the character. Well, at least I granted one of his wishes of what he wants done to Kaiba. 

theria@theria.net 


	3. Battle 3

Duel Legend

Battle 3 - Help from Beyond

By theria

* * *

The last bell rang, signaling the end of another school day. In another country perhaps, students wouldn't even be in school right now during the murky and hot weather of July. Unfortunately, Japanese students, in addition to the torture of being indoors in an non air-conditioned room for about eight hours, also had the semester examinations coming up at the end of the month. Naturally, these weren't as bad as the year end examinations that decided whether you moved on to the next grade but it was their first year of high school and hence, their first semester examination at this level. If the midterm assessment exams were any indication, a lot of students had lot of studying to do really fast.

Yugi let out a heavy sigh. He was really worried about the upcoming test. If he fell in the ranks and was dropped out of the English Track, his mother had threatened to lock up all of his games. That might not be too bad, dropping out of the English Track that is, not having all of his games taken away.

Domino High School was a public school but to be current with the times, it had long since instituted the so-called English Track curriculum that private schools had been offering alongside the 'normal' curriculum for what seemed like ages. The normal curriculum was simply that, the set of mandatory and elective classes put down by the country's Board of Education. The English Track had been created to offer students wishing more or future international, namely English, exposure to gain the proficiency in English to study and work abroad. Obviously, a number of international English-speaking students who came to Japan enrolled in this curriculum if not in an international school.

Back in middle school, when Anzu's dream of becoming a dancer was still far off, she had decided to try for Domino's English Track to better prepare her for the future. Yugi, not wanting to be left behind or alone, had studied harder than he ever had to qualify alongside her. It was right after the exam results were released when Anzu suddenly announced she was not waiting until the end of high school but was going to leave for America right now. He had been devastated to put it mildly.

So when school started he really hadn't been that attached to remaining in the course track, which was obviously harder than the normal one. Of course, on that same day he met and eventually became friends with Kyoko who was one of those previously mentioned returning students who opted for this course track. She was a lot of help when it came to studying, even if half the time all she really did was actually make him study. Was it his fault the things taught at school really didn't hold that much interest for him? Too bad grades weren't determined on how well you played games.

"Hey, Yugi. All packed up?" Kyoko asked, leaning against her desk. Though they usually walked home together, today they had another engagement to go to and so were more in a rush.

"Almost." He dumped the rest of his stuff into his bag, taking more care of his Game Advance video handheld than his notebooks. On their way out, he noticed several groups of students taking breaks by playing cards. When some of them asked him to join, he shook his head, claiming he was busy. "Duel Monsters certainly is getting popular."

"Yeah. That Duel Ring technology attracts a lot more people because it makes the game more exciting." Kyoko fell silent afterwards and Yugi himself grew depressed, remembering.

In a couple more days, it would be a full month since that fateful duel with Kaiba. Both Kyoko and Yugi had come out with nothing more than bruises, the bodyguards had only fainted. But Kaiba had become a vegetable because of whatever the angered Pharaoh had done.

"Where...going?" The Pharaoh, as always, was floating around Yugi as the three of them crossed the busy city. He had been working hard on learning the language so he could communicate with the two. The box with moving pictures and sound called a TV had been most helpful. And even though he didn't really understand everything those people that Yugi had to listen to in that building called school said, he was listening and memorizing those lessons as well. People in this world certainly had to spend a lot of time learning.

For that matter, they also wore a lot of different clothes though no one dressed like himself except for in those pictures that Yugi showed him in a book. Yugi and Kyoko had switched to their summer uniforms, short sleeved dress shirts without jackets but they were still sweating in the heat. Naturally, the Pharaoh wasn't affected by the weather at all. He could be dressed the way he was in the South Pole and not be bothered.

"We're going to visit Kaiba-kun." Yugi refrained from adding the word 'again'. He ignored the spirit's grumbling in Ancient Egyptian, which was what they assumed it had to be. "Are you sure you can't...help him or something?"

"He'll...fix...self, find...self." That was the only reply they ever got out of the ghost regarding what happened to Kaiba. Obviously, they had been unable to tell the emergency response team exactly what had happened to Kaiba and his bodyguards. They had thought it might be temporary, the bodyguards recovered shortly afterwards, but Kaiba had remained the way he was.

"But what did you do to him, Pharaoh?" Kyoko tried again to pry an answer out of the ghost. They weren't sure whether it was because he didn't want to tell, didn't know how to tell, or didn't know himself what had happened, much like the incident with the Black Magician which had never happened again. "I can't sense anything from Kaiba at all. It's like he's not even there."

The Pharaoh refused to say anything else on the matter, only voicing his wish that they hurry up and return home. His favorite learning show with the hamster was due to start in about half an hour.

"Konnichiwa, we're here to see-" Kyoko was cut off with a wave by the nurse who was on the phone, gesturing for them to go right ahead. With a shrug from Yugi, she just left it at that and they went down the hallway to Kaiba's private room. One of the benefits of being rich was having a private room in a private hospital.

To their surprise, there was actually someone already in there, a young boy sitting beside the bedridden, unresponsive Kaiba. It was Mokuba, whom they had learned by overhearing the nurses was Kaiba's younger brother. Other than themselves, he was Kaiba's only other consistent visitor.

"Ah, hello, Mokuba-kun. Are we intruding?" Yugi smiled at the younger boy, hoping to put him at ease. He wasn't sure if Mokuba remembered him or even knew about him.

"...it hasn't stopped you before, or so I've heard from the nurses." Mokuba only looked them over briefly before returning to look at his brother. On the bed's movable tray was an open notebook PC. "They say that you come by to visit Nii-sama twice a week. That you must be really good friends of Nii-sama's."

The two 'friends' winced. Well, yes they were concerned for him but there was also a healthy dose of guilt in it, knowing as they did that the Pharaoh was responsible. Neither of them was going to say that Kaiba deserved his fate even after what he tried to do.

"I don't know what happened that night and the bodyguards won't say specifically either." Mokuba snapped down the laptop, glaring at them in a manner not too unlike his older brother's. "But I do know that you two were there and that you know more than what you're telling. Nii-sama's friends?" he snorted. "It's your fault Nii-sama is like this! I don't know what you want but I don't want you ever coming here again. Now go before I call security."

"Chotto, Mokuba, we-"

Mokuba's finger hovered over the Call Nurse button.

Yugi pulled on Kyoko's arm. If Mokuba was anything like his older brother, he wouldn't be bluffing about getting security on them and Yugi didn't want a repeat episode with the Pharaoh. "Let's go, Kyoko. Before there's trouble."

She swallowed her protest. Mokuba had the same arrogance and bone-headedness as his older brother. Honestly, well excuse her for caring! Instead of worrying about Kaiba, she should have been focusing her concerns on the upcoming exams or even that young ghost boy who had been popping up frequently. Even if he had a big chip on his shoulder for his age, at least he wasn't utterly unreasonable unlike a certain pair of brothers she knew!!

Mokuba kept his finger over the call button until the two high school students' footsteps faded away in the hall outside. Then he slumped over the closed laptop, gazing sadly at his older brother, clutching a rectangular pendant in one hand. There was a similar one around his brother's neck, hidden though underneath his shirt. Though there had been some initial protest from the doctor and nurses, a little...bonus convinced them to overlook it. Really, money did make the world go around and if there was something the Kaiba family was not short of, it was money.

"Nii-sama, don't worry. I'll take care of everything." There was tremor of trembling in his voice, one matching the shaking in his hand as he reached out to grab tightly to Kaiba's hand. "I'll protect our Kaiba Corporation and your dream. I'll take care of everything, Nii-sama. Just...come back to me."

"...please."

* * *

The sun had painted the sky a mix of pink and red by the time Kyoko said good-bye to Yugi. She had spent the entire afternoon tutoring him; with the Pharaoh being of no help whatsoever as he watched TV the entire time. Of course, he wanted to try playing some of Yugi's video games as well, having finally learned how to make himself solid enough to affect normal things, but Kyoko had put her foot down about that idea. Yugi would never have been able to concentrate then and she pointed out that they would probably be playing the games late into the night anyway once she left.

. . .which she could already hear down at street level from the open window to Yugi's bedroom. At this rate, the boy was going to be deaf by the time he graduated from high school.

Shaking her head, she started to walk home, no wait, she needed to do some grocery shopping first. The joy and responsibility of living on your own, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

"Excuse me, Miss."

Kyoko paused, looking around to who called her seeing as there were few people still outside at early dusk in this quiet neighborhood. A teenager, whose class pin on his uniform collar marked him as being her age, was waving to her from the entrance of the closed game store. His white hair, an extremely out of place shade for someone of his age, marked him as being either someone not very ordinary or the product of a recessive gene pairing.

"I'm sorry for bothering you but since I saw you leaving the building I thought you might know something about the store there," he smiled self-consciously. "Though that is a bit forward of me since I don't even know if you live here."

Like she was going to tell that to a complete stranger. Sure, he looked harmless but so was a wolf in sheep's wool. "The game store only opens on the weekends and by appointment," Kyoko informed him. Obviously, with pretty much only herself and Yugi taking care of it and Akane reluctantly agreeing to take the position as the legal age adult, they couldn't keep the store hours that Sugoroku had, especially not with exams right around the corner. "There is also the store's website if you wish to browse what we carry."

He raised an eyebrow. "You work here?"

Slip of the tongue, it was too late to take it back now and rather pointless if he did show up at the store later. "Yes, I do. Was there anything in particular you were looking for?" Kyoko gave herself a mental kick for going into salesperson mode. She really didn't have time for this.

"Do you carry Tabletop Role Playing Game (TRPG) material? I noticed there was a standing figure of the Dark Master Zork but..."

"Oh that? Yes, actually we do have a few books and scenarios of the Monster World setting. It only came out recently in America."

"I've been looking forward to getting it." His brown eyes grew briefly unfocused, his left hand twitching as if from some nervous spasm. But then it was gone, and he was only smiling mildly at her. Weird. "You said the store would be open this weekend? Well, I'll be sure to drop by."

He walked away, all the while clutching tightly his twitching hand and muttering to himself. Kyoko wondered if there was something wrong with him, but then, who was she to talk? Her best friend was living with a ghost from Ancient Egypt and she could see ghosts. Speaking of which...

* * *

The park was empty though it wasn't quite dark yet. But all children would have been picked up by their mothers and fathers by now to be taken back to their nice, warm home. All but one child that is, one that sat on the low railing that surrounded the swing set, sat there looking at the empty swing before him.

"What are you thinking about?"

He didn't even look up at the person speaking to him. "It doesn't concern you."

Kyoko only smiled, he always said that. This was that young boy spirit she had been thinking about earlier. He only appeared to be about ten, had brown hair and blue eyes, and was dressed in jeans, a yellow dress shirt, and a blue sleeveless cardigan. Which was to say he looked like a normal boy if anyone other than herself could see him.

She sat down on the railing next to him. He didn't appear to notice, which was something in itself. In the beginning, he would always stay away from her, running away even. Kyoko supposed that it was only understandable that he would react that way. When she had first met him, he had been curled up on the ground, beaten and kicked by other not so friendly ghosts. He had an attitude, which annoyed pretty much every other ghost he's met, but he was also a relatively new ghost, having few memories of anything earlier.

"How was your search today?"

Again, he didn't answer though his hand clenched tightly to the pieces in his pocket. They were puzzle pieces, of that he was certain, but of what and for what he had no idea. He only knew that he wanted to, he had to put them together and in order to do that he had to find all of them. It was for these puzzle pieces that the other ghosts would gang up on him, only knowing that if they were worth something to one of them, it was probably worth more to someone else. Idiots.

"The sun's almost gone. We'd better go before the other ghosts come out." Not all ghosts were tied to the cycle of day and night though generally the meaner ones only came out at night. Hence it was a good idea to be inside, especially for him, before that happened.

"Why do you come here?" he finally asked albeit grudgingly. He didn't need anyone, not the other ghosts and certainly not a living person.

"Why are you always here?" she returned flippantly. From what she had seen, he wasn't tied to any one place or object like most ghosts. He was free wandering, an odd ability for a spirit, but she could always find him here, at sunset, in this park. "If you didn't want me to find you, you could simply not be here."

He could, that was true. Though there was something that always drew him here, he had yet to find out what it was. But always, he felt the urge to come to this park near the end of the day, watching the smiling children leave with their parents and looking at this particular swing that always seemed so lonely, waiting for someone. However, to avoid this meddlesome person he could just as easily not come.

"I go where I want," he answered with all the arrogance of his years and then some. "That has no connection to you."

"I guess. But then I also go where I want, do what I want."

"Humph." He didn't particularly like his words being thrown back at him. "And if I wasn't here? What would you do then?" The words spilled out of him without warning, too fast for him to retract them. That had been what he was thinking but he'd never say it out loud. Because it sounded like he cared.

If Kyoko thought his question out of character, or noticed how he closed up immediately afterwards, she pretended she hadn't. "Probably sit out here for a couple hours, run around looking for other places you might be, get worried that something had happened to you..." she smiled down at him. Kyoko couldn't help being worried about children. Perhaps it was lingering guilt about not being there for her own younger brothers, far in the past as it was? "I'm certain you can take care of yourself so the only thing that would be running through my mind if I couldn't find you is that something really bad must have happened."

"You don't even know who I am," he pointed out, glossing over that omission in himself though he was getting some memories the more puzzle pieces he found. Some even fit together. "Why do you concern yourself with a complete stranger with no obvious benefit to yourself?"

"You think people have relationships with each other solely for the purpose of personal benefit or desires? I suppose that's true in a way. Even the most charitable person is selfish, imposing their desire to 'do good' on people who may or may not appreciate the gesture. And of course, I'm imposing myself on you, concerning myself with you when I suppose there really isn't any reason to."

He flinched at her words but said nothing. It was after all what he had expected she would say. All older people were like that but at least Kyoko didn't bother to hide behind fancy words and false gestures. That was something he really hated. He supposed that the fact that she didn't do it was something he liked about her and was the only reason he bothered being here everyday. After all, it would only take one day of her not showing up and all of his beliefs about older people would be justified.

"Well, shall we go? I bought more of your favorite ice cream."

He snorted. It was an excuse for him to come and they both knew it. He just waited a little while before jumping off the railing, to show that he was going only reluctantly. His first several nights out alone were still vivid in his early ghostly memory and they had not been pleasant ones. Sure he could have hidden in other buildings but...it was tiresome to be alone where no one saw you, heard you, or noticed you. It was preferable to stay at Kyoko's apartment since she at least could see and hear him and didn't treat him like he didn't exist.

Funny that one of the things he first remembered was his favorite ice cream flavor. He didn't need to eat, never felt hunger, but for some reason he could eat food if he felt like it. Kyoko had commented about how he was a weird ghost. He thought she was weird to even be friends with a ghost and had said as much at time. She only grinned and said that the dead should stick together.

"Something wrong?" Kyoko asked, looking back at the ghost boy who stopped several paces behind.

"...no, nothing."

"If you say so..." Her tone obviously implied that she didn't believe him but she wasn't going to push the issue. "You know, we really have to get you a name. I can't always be calling you 'you' or 'ghost boy'."

"What would be the point once I remember my name and it turns out to be different." He rolled his eyes. Why did girls always have to think of the silly things? He certainly didn't feel inconvenienced by not having a name.

"Have you remembered your name yet?"

"No."

"Well then," she said with an air of finality as if the question had been answered. "How about...Ky?"

"Ky...?" It sounded vaguely familiar to him. "Where did you come up with that?"

"You remind me of someone...with that name."

"...someone you like?"

"Wha-?! Where did you get that idea??" Kyoko sputtered, glaring at the boy, er Ky as he walked coolly passed her. "No, for your information Ky is the name of a video game character. You happen to look a bit like him, I guess, if you switch the color pattern. And grow another foot or so."

The ghost boy now dubbed 'Ky' rolled his eyes. Leave it up to a girl to pick a name for that reason though he supposed he had to give her some credit for choosing it from a video game and not some cheesy girl manga.

* * *

Yugi looked at the letters stuffed into the mailbox. His mother had told him it was his responsibility now to check it every morning. So he had forgotten for a... few days. Akane had been too busy to notice. Well, he'd be sure to clean it out when he came back after school. Just to make sure there wasn't anything urgent and to re-stack them so they wouldn't spill out anymore, he flipped through them.

Oh, here was an international letter. Yugi looked to the return address, wondering from which of his grandfather's friends it had come from.

"ANZU?!?"

The Pharaoh blinked and leaned over Yugi's shoulder to see what had excited the boy enough to rip open the envelope and figuratively devour its contents. He hadn't understood what Yugi had yelled about either. And of course, he couldn't read a word of Japanese which was what the letter was entirely written in.

"What...say?"

Yugi didn't appear to hear him though his eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Yugi...?"

"SHE'S COMING BACK!!!" he shrieked with joy. The Pharaoh had to clap his hands over his deafened ears. "She'll be back for the entire month of August! I wonder if mom will let me meet her at the airport? Do you think she's changed? Have I? I can't wait to see her again! Oh, I hope she hasn't found a boyfriend or something over there..."

Yugi rambled on and on, the rest of the mail forgotten. But that wasn't the only thing he had forgotten.

The Pharaoh waved his hand in front of Yugi's face, trying to get his attention. "Yugi...time."

The teenager blinked and looked at his watch. "AAH! I'm going to be late! Why didn't you tell me earlier, Pharaoh!?"

Pharaoh only sighed and shook his head, he had tried. What was so important about this Anzu person that had Yugi all worked up? He had a vague recollection of hearing Kyoko also mention the name and then Yugi turning red as if he had a fever. But idle speculation could come later, at school. Right now he had to run to keep up with the boy and moving Puzzle. It was going to be one of those days.

* * *

"You stayed up late last night playing video games didn't you?" Kyoko fixed an eye on Yugi during the ten minute passing period between classes. Yugi had of course arrived late and would be washing the chemistry test tubes and flasks after school today as punishment.

Yugi only laughed weakly. He had been playing video games, with the Pharaoh who caught on rather quickly though he sometimes lost his concentration and his tangibility. But that wasn't the real reason he was late and he certainly wasn't going to tell Kyoko about Anzu's letter.

It wasn't that he thought Kyoko might get jealous or something or vice versa. The two had never met but both knew about the other. What Yugi was afraid of was that Kyoko's ribbing was going to exponentially increase. But he wasn't going to keep Anzu's visit completely secret. He'd introduce his old friend to his new friend after he had some private time with Anzu. The Pharaoh had yet to make any comments about what happened this morning and Yugi made a mental note to talk with the ghost later and make sure he kept quiet.

For that matter, he wasn't sure he wanted the ancient spirit hanging around then either. Anzu probably wouldn't be able to see him but it would be like having... nosy friends spying you on a date or something. Was he going to ask Anzu out on a date? She might just think it was an old get-together of friends. What was he going to wear? But he'd probably have to leave the Puzzle behind, at least whenever he wanted to be alone with her.

"Argh! When did things get this complicated?" Yugi moaned, hitting his head against his desk.

Kyoko blinked, obviously not understanding what her friend was referring to. "Are you talking about the video games or the test?"

"Test?" His violet eyes lacked recognition for a moment. "The tests are right before vacation!!" He would have to suffer through them first before getting to see Anzu again. The powers that be were too, too cruel to him. Yugi let his head fall back down on the desk again.

"Are you getting enough iron in your diet?" Kyoko poked him to see if he was still alive. "Or calcium? Maybe all that junk food you eat has weakened your bones to the point they can no longer hold up your head."

"Like that would happen!" Yugi retorted, the impact blunted by the fact that his head was still on the desk. An energy bar appeared in front of his eyes. "Huh?"

"Have this. Sometimes I feel like I can't do anything either and eating this helps."

Yugi and Kyoko looked up at the speaker.

"Who are you?" Yugi had never seen this student before and certainly not in his class. He had soft brown eyes, normal enough, but his long hair was a shocking white.

"Ah, that's right. You weren't here for my introduction. Bakura Ryou desu(1). I transferred into your class today. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, Muto-kun(2)." Ryou smiled, eyes closed. Then he turned to Kyoko. "I would never have imagined we would be in the same class, Suomi-kun."

"Likewise." She had recognized him in the beginning of class. Talk about coincidences if you didn't believe in fate or destiny. There were certainly a number of supernatural things occurring around her lately. Or maybe it was because of Yugi's Puzzle. No, she was probably just thinking too hard. This Bakura Ryou was only being friendly. "But you certainly didn't pick a good time to come, not with the tests at the end of this month."

Ryou scratched his head in embarrassment. "Yes well, one generally doesn't really have a choice when it comes to transferring though I do hope that passing the entrance examination is an indication of my ability. This may seem forward of me but would it be alright if you two could assist me in catching up with this class? I was in the English Track at my previous school but I'm not sure how similar the teachings are."

"I think that would be great, we could have our own study group." Yugi grinned, obviously the offered energy bar having already put good marks for Ryou in his book. It was very lonely to enter a class where you don't know anyone. Yugi should know since he had been in Ryou's shoes once. Kyoko had held out a hand to him then so he was going to hold out his hand to Ryou. "Don't you think Kyoko? We could meet in the library or somewhere."

"Study group?" the Pharaoh asked Kyoko for an explanation of the unfamiliar term. It was safe for him to talk at school since no one else had been able to see or hear him.

"A study group is when several students get together to study together. It's very helpful not only for the weaker students get help but for the stronger students to also review by teaching," Ryou answered. "That would be a great idea, Muto-kun. A group of four isn't too big or too small."

The three of them stared slack-jawed at Ryou. He only smiled.

"EH?!?!?" screamed three voices at once.

"The teacher is coming!" yelled a student in the hallway and their classmates scrambled to get into their seats before the instructor arrived. Ryou only nodded to them before returning to his seat.

"...he...heard...?" muttered the ghost, looking after the mysterious new student. Kyoko and Yugi exchanged bewildered and helpless glances. Neither of them had said anything. It certainly looked like Ryou had been answering the Pharaoh's question, which meant he had to have heard him but... was it all just a fluke?

"Yes. I did," came the answer from one white-haired student. He continued in a low voice as the teacher entered. "Perhaps we can talk more later?"

There was nothing more they could say as the teacher called the class to order. Today was going to be a messy biology dissection. Yugi closed his eyes and groaned silently.

* * *

Later turned out to be much later, considering that Ryou was called to the teachers' office during lunch and neither Kyoko nor Yugi wanted to start up a conversation about ghosts in the presence of the other students. It came down to after school ended and Yugi was fulfilling his punishment for his tardiness.

"He doesn't seem like a bad person," Yugi commented, using a finger brush to get at a particularly stubborn solid sedimentation at the bottom of the test tube. Kyoko, who was drying the glassware, had filled him on her meeting with Ryou yesterday. "Even if his hair color is rather scary."

"..." Kyoko thought that Yugi was the last person to comment on someone else's hair color or style. "Have you been watching those Chinese horror movies again? If I recall correctly, those white-haired people can't come out during the day."

"Actually," intruded a perfectly friendly voice, "it's because of a little incident with a faded parchment scroll, a bad dictionary, and a demon."

Both Kyoko and Yugi stifled gasps of surprise and only barely retained their grips on the chemistry glass. Two pairs of reproachful eyes turned on Ryou, who was smiling unconcernedly.

"Oh good, you two are still here. I was afraid you might have already left, considering how long I was in the teacher's office." Without preamble, Ryou picked up the dried glassware and began putting it away, following Kyoko's directions. "I'm still not sure the teacher believes that my hair color is natural."

"But... you said a demon..." Yugi choked.

"He was joking," Kyoko informed her shorter friend though a side glance at Ryou's unperturbed face made her question her own observation. "You didn't tell the teacher that whole story about demons did you?"

"If ghosts exists," Ryou nodded his head toward the Pharaoh, "then why not demons? But no, you are right, Suomi-kun, I didn't tell the teacher that. I simply said it was a genetic recessive condition."

Actually, the dress code and enforcement of it at Domino High School was somewhat lax. The boys could get away with unbuttoned jackets and non-standard shirts underneath it. Of course, it may be because of that certain laxness that the teachers tended to come down hard on 'extreme' examples, like Ryou's hair. Yugi had undergone a similar experience about his hair, until his grandfather came in to meet with the teacher, and again about the Puzzle. He kept his mouth shut about how he got through that one.

"Even with that, he still insisted that I dye it and when I refused, he threatened to call my parents. And then I told him they are currently not available." A bemused smile floated on Ryou's lips as he remembered the teacher's frustration.

"But Bakura-kun, didn't you say you moved here from...?" Kyoko tried to remember where but for some reason, a name wouldn't come up. She was quite sure it had been mentioned sometime, somewhere, most likely during his self-introduction this morning. "Did you move in all by yourself?"

Ryou's eyes flickered, briefly, looking at the glassware he was arranging and not at Yugi. "I did since my...family is usually off working somewhere in the world." There was a tone of finality in his words that implied, heavily, that he did not want to say any more about that. "But that's not what we're here to talk about is it? Suomi-kun. Muto-kun."

The pair of friends stiffened, the half-dreaded, half-anticipated conversation finally coming up.

"It would probably be most convenient to meet at one set place though it might be interesting to cycle the meeting places among our respective homes. After all, the school is only opened for limited hours beyond normal school times."

If she could, Kyoko would have facefaulted, as she had seen many characters do in anime and manga. Here, she and Yugi had been worried about how to talk about the Pharaoh with Ryou and here he was going off on how they were going to set up their study group!!

"A... Ano, Bakura-kun... didn't you... weren't we going to talk about..." Yugi indiscreetly pointed at the egyptian(?) ghost, "the Pharaoh?"

"Pharaoh?" Ryou couldn't hide his astonishment, his eyes narrowing briefly, studying the three, before resuming their usual open friendliness. "Is that what you call him or is that the name he gave for himself? Not that he appears to be very talkative."

Yugi briefly recounted how he met the Pharaoh, unconsciously rubbing the Puzzle around his neck while doing so. Though he had initially left out most of the 'mystical' details, they were somehow coaxed out of him by Ryou's subtle probing. The white-haired youth appeared genuinely interested, and not at all scared, by all of this.

"So then, Suomi-kun, you have some kind of spirit sense?"

Kyoko nodded. "Don't you have it as well?" After all, if Ryou could see and hear the Pharaoh...

He shook his head, much to their surprise. "Actually, I don't though I admit I have...dabbled in the arcane arts." Neither of them was quite sure how to take that. Certainly there were many books on 'magick' but whether those were real or not... But again, if ghosts were real... "However, I think perhaps this might answer your question better."

Ryou closed his eyes, concentrating on something. Suddenly, a golden ring about the size of his hand appeared above his shirt, hanging from a string around his neck. But what caught Kyoko's and Yugi's attention more than the item's 'sudden' appearance was the emblem molded onto it, a stylized eye that matched the one on Yugi's Puzzle and puzzle box.

"I believe the reason I can see the Pharaoh is partially because of my exposure to the supernatural, but more because of this Millennium Ring." His fingers traced over the eye, reverently, causing the hanging spikes to shake and ring against each other.

"Millennium Ring?!?" the friends repeated in stereo. It was difficult to tell as to whether their bewilderment was from Ryou's revelation or from the fact that it didn't really look like a ring, not one you could wear on your finger at any rate.

"Hai. And Yugi, I believe yours would be called the Millennium... Puzzle."

"Millennium Puzzle?!?" Again in sync. This time, the name made a bit more sense.

Ryou looked amused at their reactions.

"I believe these two were part of the same set. Beyond the obvious similarities in material and design, something that could simply be attributed to being made during the same time period, there is also this." He held out the Ring and muttered a few unintelligible words. The hanging... prongs for lack of better word shook for a moment and then rose up of their own accord, pointing at Yugi, or more accurately, at the Puzzle hanging from his neck.

Three pairs of eyes stared dumbfounded at the phenomenon.

Though all three were now quite used to the thought that ghosts existed in the world, one of them being a ghost himself, and they recognized that something akin to magic could be done by the Pharaoh, seeing magic performed by someone else, someone they had just met, was enough to leave them speechless.

Kyoko found her tongue first. "Which is to say... that our meeting in front of Yugi's home was not simply coincidence."

"Well, there is obviously a range limit and I generally do have to activate the effect," Ryou acceded, apparently releasing the magick and letting the Ring rest against his chest again. "I didn't know coming to Domino City that there was a Millennium Item bearer here."

Yugi was quiet, looking at the Puzzle cradled in his hands. He hadn't considered that there might be more to the Puzzle, beyond the Pharaoh that is, or that it might actually belong to something. It had after all been his grandfather's though now that Yugi thought about it, he never even knew his grandfather had the puzzle box until it was brought out to be given to him by Sugoroku's will. Had his grandfather known something about it? Yugi knew nothing but Ryou apparently did.

"Bakura-kun, what do you know about these... Millennium... items...?"

"Bits and pieces... picked up from really obscure books," Ryou answered vaguely, his eyes not meeting Yugi's or anyone's for that matter. "There really isn't much there."

"But, you said that my Puzzle and your Ring was part of a set..."

"And unless you learned about your... Ring's tracking ability from reading, you must have used it before... to find another Millennium Item," added Kyoko. She wasn't generally suspicious or paranoid by nature but there can only be so many coincidences in the world.

"Well...it doesn't always work on command," hedged the white-haired youth. "It sometimes detects things on its own and I'm not entirely sure why it does that, perhaps in reaction to the same or similar magical energy that it uses. After all, the Ring wasn't reacting right now until I activated it. I don't think it can sense inactive items."

"Inactive items? You mean if someone was to... say, use whatever power might be in the Puzzle, your Ring would direct you to that person without being commanded to?" But Kyoko was fairly sure that Yugi's Puzzle hadn't been 'active' yesterday or at any other time, unless you count its purpose as home and leash to the Pharaoh. For that matter, what power did it have?

"It certainly isn't doing anything right now."

Yugi and Kyoko looked at the Ring, which looked just as ostentatious on Ryou as did the Puzzle on Yugi. Of course, the fact that he could hide it meant that the teachers weren't going to get on his case about it, in addition to his hair color.

"But what are they for?" Yugi insisted, his imagination and brain beginning to shift to high gear, something it never does for school. This could be just like one of his video games. "Are they like... powerful magical artifacts that the chosen characters must use to fight the encroaching darkness only to have to sacrifice them because the artifacts themselves use the same power?"

Silence.

"Ah, that sounds too corny," Yugi laughed and everyone joined in, all of them, even Yugi, rather half-heartedly. That was just too unbelievable, that something like that could happen to plain-old him.

"Sounds like the general plot for about ten video games," agreed Kyoko though she privately noted that their lives were already not a prime example of 'normal'. "Maybe you should consider a career in game design, Yugi."

The boy blushed because Kyoko knew about several of his attempts at trying to create a new game.

"That would be an interesting concept for a game..." Ryou mused, tapping a finger on his chin. "The expected saviors of the world may have actually inadvertently begun its destruction. It's quite easy to trick players into that kind of situation."

"That's right, you asked about TRPGs didn't you? I take it you play them?"

"Well, I'm usually the Game Master. Everyone loved the scenarios I would come up with so I didn't have many opportunities of being a player character."

"AAAHHHH!!"

Kyoko and Ryou turned to look at Yugi who had just screamed. There was no blood splattered all over the sink so he couldn't just cut himself on broken glass. There didn't appear to be any demons, ghosts, or unexplainable supernatural phenomenon around despite their earlier conversation and the accumulation of the supernatural and paranormal already present. So just why had Yugi screamed?

"Bakura-kun ne? You said your name was Bakura Ryou right?"

"Yes...?" Ryou raised a thin, dark eyebrow.

"But in America it would be written "Ryo Bakura" wouldn't it?"

"Yes, most Western countries have the identification custom of given name and then family name. It's part of the social emphasis on the individual rather than the Eastern emphasis on the collective."

Everything after the affirmative completely went in one ear and out the other. "Then...are you the same person who created the Monster World campaign setting?"

Silence.

"Yes."

More silence.

"EEEEHHH?!?" This time it was Kyoko.

"You didn't know? Suomi-kun. I thought that you might have made the connection."

"I don't pick up minor details like who created or authored it."

"Harsh," Yugi winced.

* * *

"You know, this is kind of sudden..."

Kyoko and Yugi looked up from where they were hunched over Yugi's math book. This was their second study session together with Ryou, just over a week after he had transferred into their class. Ryou had a pretty good grasp on literature and history whereas Kyoko was stronger in science and math. Both were overall very good students and unlikely to fall below the top 50 in the class. Yugi on the hand needed help in everything, and now with Ryou here to help as well, he was getting through his studies with less questionably affectionate whacks on the head with a pillow when his attention drifted. Ryou, in his opinion, was a lifesaver.

"There is a tie-in promotion to Monster World coming up this weekend. You remember how I told you I gave out a license to make a networked video game for the setting? Well, the local promotion and play-test is on Saturday and as the creator, I was able to get my hands on some exclusive VIP passes. Would you two like to come?"

Yugi's eyes had turned into stars.

"Of course the Pharaoh can come as well." Ryou nodded to the ghost who was currently absorbed in a driving game involving so many driving violations that he hoped the ghost was never allowed behind the wheel. "Being a ghost, he won't need a ticket."

"That means the store will have to be closed. And we should probably be studying..."

"Oh come on, Kyoko," Yugi pleaded, mercilessly turning his ultimate weapon, the hurt puppy look, onto his best friend. "We still have another weekend after that before exams week. And we can't study all the time, our brains will liquefy."

"It's a new system they're showcasing," Ryou added helpfully. "A type of full-immersion virtual reality--"

"In." Her answer was abrupt, succinct, and to the point. Yugi exchanged triumphant grins with Ryou. Kyoko loved role-playing games, the more interactive the better. And she, like anyone else, was hardly going to let a free chance like this slip by her.

"Then it's settled. Why don't we meet at the showcase site half an hour before it opens?" He handed over a flier describing the event for the other two see.

"So it's being held at..."

* * *

"Kaiba...Land..."

Kyoko's first thought was about how arrogant, and fitting, that an amusement park created by Kaiba Corporation would be named Kaiba Land. Then she reminded herself that the Disney in Disney Land was also someone's name so really, it wasn't all that self-serving.

"Kyoko... ohayou."

She looked to the left to see Yugi walking up with the Pharaoh. Since it wasn't a school day, Yugi was dressed in faded jeans and a black sleeveless shirt with the word "YuGiOh" emblazoned across the front. Somehow, he always looked closer to his age when out of the school uniform. Naturally, the Puzzle hung around his neck as always.

"Ohayou, Yugi, Pharaoh," she replied and resumed looking at the amusement park building laid out before them.

There was of course an archway sign proclaiming just exactly what this place was. A large courtyard lay spread out before them, dotted with statues of various Duel Monster creatures. However, the main attractions all lay within the building itself which also had its share of Duel Monster statues decorating it as could be seen through the glass walls. And of course there were children packed as far as the eye could see.

"...it was here...wasn't it." It wasn't a question but a statement. Even if it had been nighttime and empty, Yugi recognized this place as the stage for that fateful night with Kaiba.

"This must have been what he was referring to," Kyoko spoke quietly, recalling her conversation with the young corporate president when he first entered the store. Of course, Kaiba Land's grand opening had been delayed because of the accident. "Kind of hard to believe someone like him could put together something like this."

Yugi read no malice in her words but also could not help but to nod in silent agreement. True they didn't really know Kaiba Seto beyond what anyone else in school knew, perhaps they knew more than they wanted to about his ruthlessness and how far he would go to get something he wants. But here before them was another side to Kaiba Seto, one that Yugi wasn't quite sure he understood but one that made him hopeful that Kaiba wasn't all that bad as he made himself appear to be.

Which could only be wishful thinking on Yugi's part. He really didn't think ill of anyone.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, Muto-kun, Suomi-kun." Ryou waved to them from the entrance of the building, in his raised hands were what looked to be two nametags. "I have your passes."

* * *

When Ryou said he could get exclusive VIP passes, he hadn't been kidding. All of the men in dark suits and shades just took one look at the passes hanging from their necks and waved them through. And it wasn't just for the showcase promotion either, but just about every attraction that didn't require advance reservation like the popular Duel Rings. There were also rooms of various video games, indoor roller coasters, arenas for other trading games like Capsule Monster Chess, obstacle courses, shows, if you could name it, it was somewhere in the building that apparently could hold much more than its exterior appearance would indicate.

Yugi couldn't help but wonder, as they were led to a backroom of the showcase past everyone else, which one of the doors they had passed earlier led to the Duel Ring stage he had used over a month ago.

The showcase was apparently very popular if one judged only by the number of people there. Ryou had said it was supposed to be a new system of some sort but Yugi didn't know the first thing about technology much less the virtual system and all of its ins and outs. For him, it was basically if it works, he'll use it, if it doesn't, he calls the service center. Of course, Yugi knew that the Duel Rings used some kind of virtual reality technology to create the monsters on the "field". And he had been kind of expecting something similar for whatever it was they doing to Monster World.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

The three of them were shown to three reclining, cushioned seats encapsulated in some kind of pod. There were other clusters of pods, each surrounding a tower and there were monitors showing the video game display of the occupied pods. The scene kind of remind Yugi of some of those American science fiction movies he's seen though he couldn't name any particular one.

"Please be seated," gestured a Man in Black, motioning to Yugi to move along. He had just been gawking at the machine. A bit embarrassed, he slide onto the chair, more than a bit annoyed that his feet were nowhere near the bottom of the pod. He didn't like being reminded that he was the shortest boy in his class. "Please relax and keep your hands and feet within the marked compartments of the VR pod."

The glass covers descended and Yugi had to swallow his apprehension at being enclosed. What if they were trapped inside? What if they ran out of air in here? A million other "what if" scenarios ran through the boy's mind.

Pharaoh looked down worriedly at Yugi, sensing the boy's apprehension. He didn't quite understand what was going on, naturally, but Yugi, Kyoko, and that new boy Ryou had all gone into the unfamiliar tubes willingly. And it didn't look like other people who had gone into them were suffering from anything. In fact, they looked asleep. Moving to the extent of his range, he could see other two seemed to be comfortable in their closed chairs. Well, actually, Kyoko looked impatient and was exploring the interior of her chair. And Ryou...well, Ryou was glaring at his left hand, muttering something. But when he looked up and caught the Pharaoh's eye, he only smiled as usual and waved to the ghost.

"Now, if you will please relax and close your eyes..."

Yugi scrunched his eyes closed but he wasn't able to relax, especially not when he felt something approaching both of his ears. There was some kind of droning noise and then...

Nothing.

* * *

Naturally, during the past week in preparation for this event, Yugi had been studying up on TRPGs, and on Monster World in particular. He had a general idea of how things worked but Ryou had suggested they read up on character creation and come up with an idea of what they wanted to "play" as. Kyoko had not really scolded Yugi for skimping on his studies a bit to do this. She had been more obsessed than he had and he had caught her reading through books hidden behind her textbook during class.

Of course, she had refused to say what kind of character she was going to create. Yugi knew they needed a balanced party, well, as balanced as you can get with only three people. At least they weren't starting out at Level 1, since this was only a demo to get people interested and show off what the system could do. Ryou had privately passed on information that, as part of his "group", they would be starting out even higher than the other demo players.

Yugi looked at the character design windows opening up all around him as he hung suspended in some void. He picked out the specifications for his character that he had finalized last night. Kyoko and Ryou certainly weren't going to expect this of him, he thought excitedly. It was too bad the Pharaoh couldn't join them.

"Character creation complete... Compiling profile... visual grid... Complete. Player YUGI prepare for ascension."

The cool, clinical, female voice of the computer spoke from all directions and most certainly did not prepare Yugi for his sudden "landfall" into a scenery that materialized in pieces around him. It looked to be a European pre-Renaissance town, a very bizarre landscape for a native Japanese person. He was standing in a town square, right next to a water fountain. There were people in strange clothes talking and walking around, some more than others.

"Yugi?" A familiar female voice called from across the square. A person wrapped in a deep blue-black hooded mantle came running up to him, the flapping cloth revealing the lighter blue one piece sleeveless tunic and shorts ensemble underneath and white boots that went all the way up to mid-thigh. It was only when she pulled down her hood that Yugi could recognize that it was Kyoko. Though it wasn't exactly her since Yugi was fairly sure she didn't have an intricate black tattoo across her right eye. "I was wondering when you'd arrived. Is that the rogue visual grid template you're wearing?"

He nodded sheepishly. Yes, he had chosen the rogue class, jack of all trades. None of the other classes had really seemed suitable and yes Yugi did like the images of the rogues in grayish-blue leather in the actual hardback Monster World campaign book. Heck, he could even pick a lock or two... thanks to those lock-and-key puzzles of course, not because he was specifically learning how to pick locks. Not that he would need to use real skills in this virtual role playing game, everything here was decided by how many ranks he had put into his skills and the random, computer generated, die roll.

"With your hair, it was easy to pick you out," Kyoko grinned, patting said multi-colored and somewhat geometric hair. "Though I thought you would have added some centimeters to your character."

Both of them were still at their real heights and their visual grids were based on their actual appearance. Of course, the idea behind role-playing was that you don't necessarily play as yourself. Certainly there were probably not people in the world who, naturally, had green or pink hair as some of the people wandering around town sported. For that matter, Yugi wondered, how many characters were actually the same gender as their players?

"Ah, Suomi-kun, Muto-kun. Good, you're together. I was afraid we might not be able to find each other." Ryou, despite his words, didn't look all that worried. In fact, he seemed to be right at home among these old wooden and stone buildings, his white hair and flowing white robes lending an air of authority and experience to his young face. Well, he had designed the campaign setting. "The White Sage RYOU at your service."

Kyoko raised a tattooed eyebrow. "White Sage?"

"Well, I did ask if I could use my NPC persona in this demonstration." Ryou failed to look suitably humble, probably because of the playful half-smile tugging at his lips. "But you've outdone your character, Suomi-kun. A Rank 3 ESPer..." His eyes fixed on her tattoo, the intricacy and pattern marking her a master of the three disciplines, and then trailing down her "costume", the garb of an elite warrior division of the general ESPer class.

Yugi's violet eyes grew big. No wonder Kyoko hadn't told him what she was going to be. An ESPer was an optional class category for the Monster World setting, not everyone considered psionics, powers of the mind, to be suitable for a fantasy story. Bakura-kun didn't seem surprised but he might have already known what she had chosen. There was no other way Yugi could explain it since he couldn't have figured out what Kyoko was based only on her visual grid.

Speaking of visual grids, Bakura-kun sure seemed to fit his well. Yugi resisted the urge to look into the water fountain to see how he "looked" in his leathers. Hopefully, not like a kid trying to look like a punk or something. Just when was his growth spurt going to hit? He didn't want to remain 153 cm (five feet) for the rest of his life!

"Not one word about the costume," Kyoko remarked sharply, drawing Yugi out of his thoughts even though she was looking pointedly at Ryou who just couldn't seem to wipe that smile off of his face. "I'm going to have a word with the designers about that. Exactly who can go around adventuring in shorts??"

"Well, it isn't as if this was real." Ryou sounded almost wistful as he looked around at the bustling town, his grip on his white oak staff tightening briefly. "Well, shall we tour the town? I'm rather curious as to how the designers and programmers implemented this," he said as he led the other two away from the starting point.

"You don't know? Bakura-kun," asked Yugi as he walked alongside his friend, amazed at how realistic the flow of Ryou's robes, rippling with the spellcaster's movement. "But isn't this...?"

"They consulted me and I did have a hand in writing out the game scenario and such. But obviously they didn't ask me to lay down every little detail and I like seeing my creation through other people's eyes. It puts things in perspective."

"So beyond creating our own character and interacting with this town, what else can we do with this demo?" Kyoko was keenly aware of the various throwing daggers secreted all over her body as well as displayed openly on her second belt. This virtual reality system was absolutely amazing, she could almost believe she really was in another world.

Ryou thought for a moment. "Well, the actual game world will be much larger than what we will be experiencing here. This is supposed to only be a demonstration after all. Hmmm. I believe we can also explore the wilderness around this town and there should be a sample dungeon out there. Random monster encounters and all, nothing too strong but enough to give players a challenge. Well, to give other players a challenge," he amended, looking like the proverbial smug cat.

Kyoko and Yugi both looked at him for more explanation.

"As Kyoko recognized, my character, the White Sage, is a very powerful NPC of the Monster World setting. Naturally, my 'level' will be much higher than of those player characters that might come across me."

"How much higher?"

The white-haired youth examined his nails. "Oh...about twelve levels at the very least."

Twelve?!?

"Besides, considering how much of an icon character the White Sage is to the world, it would only be fitting that he appear in the play demo." Ryou was all smiles toward his two friends.

"...and that would make us...?" Yugi ventured to ask.

"My henchmen," Ryou answered promptly, perhaps a bit too promptly. "Or would you prefer the term followers?"

"How about we compromise at companions before we find out exactly how well I can 'play' at being this psychic warrior I'm supposed to be?" grinned Kyoko, flames gathering around her and yet not burning anything. Several of the people walking by suddenly decided that keeping a good distance away from her was a good idea.

"Do I sense a challenge?" Ryou tapped his staff on the street and then leaned against it indolently as his robes began to flutter because of the energy building around the staff.

Yugi sighed in resignation and exasperation at his friends' antics. He certainly hoped they weren't going to start a full-fledged fight in the middle of the street. (Bar brawls however were an entirely different matter.)

"It looks like they're having fun, huh? Pharaoh."

There was no reply in broken Japanese, no feeling of amusement or confusion or anything.

"Pharaoh?"

The boy looked around, realizing for the first time in the past month or so that the ghost was nowhere around him. He shook his head. Well of course the Pharaoh couldn't be here, how could he? He was a ghost and Yugi doubted however this game system worked, the Pharaoh wouldn't be able to simply pop in like he did in the real world. Well, that was one thing to remember.

The familiar weight of the puzzle was also gone. Yugi had pretty much worn it all the time while he was awake and was used to the pressure of the clunky metal thing now. Naturally he didn't wear it when he slept, that would be highly uncomfortable not to mention potentially hazardous to his health, especially if he rolled over it or something. The visual grid of the game wouldn't allow for the Puzzle to appear on his character though Yugi wondered if he could have it on in this video game, would the Pharaoh be able to appear?

"Oi, Yugi!"

"...hm?" Yugi blinked at the two pairs of eyes, both brown, looking at him. Then he looked around at the street and its buildings, both of which appeared intact and unharmed.

"What are you spacing out for?"

"...weren't you two going to fight or something?"

Kyoko rolled her eyes. "No, we decided on a better way to test out this game." The smile on her lips was positively devilish as she latched onto one of Yugi's arms.

A pit of unease was forming in Yugi's stomach as Ryou grabbed onto his other arm and the two proceeded to frog-march him in the direction leading out of town.

"And this 'better way' you mentioned...?"

"We're going to do a little monster extermination," Ryou said blandly as if he was announcing he was stepping outside to check the mail. "And then we'll go dungeon delving. That will be a perfect opportunity to put your skills to use, Muto-kun. That is, you are the stereotypical lock-picking, back-stabbing, trap-detecting and -disarming type of rogue aren't you?"

"Well... yes..." He wasn't quite sure how or what Kyoko and Ryou thought of his choice of character. The way Ryou put it, it made him sound like a thief. "Hey, I'm not a back-stabber!"

"We certainly hope not," his two friends chirped in stereo without missing a step.

Scary.

* * *

"Mokuba-sama, this way please."

Kaiba Mokuba followed Kuroda, director in charge of this promotion demonstration of one of Kaiba Corporation's many projects that had been set up by his older brother. If there was any justice in the world, it should have been him here now, not Mokuba. Not that Mokuba wouldn't have loved to be with his brother or be able to assist him in any way possible, but here life was going on as normal while Kaiba Seto lay comatose in his solitary hospital room. Mokuba did not like this very clear reminder of how insignificant a person can be.

Even though in name he was the vice president of the corporation, Mokuba still was only in fifth grade. He doubted his older brother would let him take on the full duties and responsibilities of the position until Mokuba had graduated college or whatever postgraduate studies he chose to take. Not that Mokuba was feeling slighted, he knew he was neither ready nor prepared. Their foster father, beyond using Mokuba as a convenient and effective 'incentive' for Seto's compliance, had ignored the younger boy. So Mokuba had grown up as a normal boy, well as normal of a boy one can be when rich beyond most people's dreams and with a heavy brother adoration complex, but a normal boy nonetheless.

Taking a seat in the monitoring station that had the same game displays as the showcase room below, he began scanning the progress of the various players, pleased with how well the system was able to translate the virtual world and its interactive characters to the standard 2-D screen. Of course, he didn't know how this all worked exactly but it was his brother's work which had converted this relic of their foster's father defense industry empire into a cutting edge piece of gaming technology. That was of course the reason why there was such a large gap between this immersion VR system and the Duel Ring technology used for Duel Monsters. The latter was entirely of Kaiba's design but in order to quickly and firmly establish Kaiba Corporation in the amusement industry, Kaiba was going to use any means available to him.

"Hey!!"

All of the technicians nearly jumped out of their seats at Mokuba's yell and the accompanying slamming of both hands on the control panel. More than a few were inclined to only think of him as a kid but the black suit special police that were always around him convinced them that respect and deference were the better attitude.

"What is he doing here?!" Mokuba's finger jammed itself onto the monitor screen, selecting one of the many video feeds to maximize itself within the monitor's resolution constraints. A youth dressed in banded leather of blue-gray was furiously manipulating a wall mural as his two companions held back several orcs with spell and blade.

"Ah, Mokuba-sama... that's one of the guests of Bakura-sensei," Kuroda informed his petite superior, perspiration appearing on his brow. "After all of the assistance he had given us, we didn't think it was out of line to agree with his request to bring along some guests to the showcase..."

The man's hesitant and deferential manner told Mokuba that Kuroda had had previous encounters with his older brother when Seto was angry. Though the elder Kaiba had the presence of mind not to act immaturely or capriciously, especially with regards to the well-being of the corporation, it was not far off the mark to also say that Kaiba Seto was used to getting his way... or making things go his way. Mokuba was sure Seto had never fired anyone simply because they made him angry... it was more because of whatever they did to make him angry.

"Forget it." The fifth grader dismissed the man with a wave, dropping back into his chair to glare at the video feed. There was no need to take out his anger on that man who was only doing his job to the best of his ability, especially not when the object of Mokuba's anger was right there in front of him, technically speaking. "Muto Yugi..."

* * *

"Alright, so that makes...," Kyoko looked up at the ceiling of the underground corridor, ignoring some programmer's hard work in creating an eroded stone mural of some ancient battle. "Ten for me?"

"No, dear," Ryou returned in a paternal condescending tone that would be used to placate headstrong and misguided young children. "It's nine since I really don't think that orc shaman counts as one of your kills."

She raised an eyebrow at her placid friend. "I did land the killing blow." One of her punching daggers still held in hand was waved as if to emphasize the point.

"Ah, but only because my magics had injured him enough for you to get through his defenses," chided the white robed spellcaster, letting his oak staff roll in his hands, the runes running down its length catching the rather strong torchlight.

"A little more noise if you please?" interrupted a fairly annoyed voice with a hint of exasperation. Yugi caught both of their innocent looks "Who me?" and returned them with a "Yes you" glare. "I am trying, with an emphasis on trying, to disarm and unlock this treasure chest and it's so very helpful to have so much noise around to distract me while I'm doing it."

Yugi wasn't a sarcastic person by nature, having been very much the meek, submissive type that gets picked on a lot, and even when he was sarcastic now it was generally a mild thing. Not the marinated in sauce, cooked, and then dipped in sauce again sarcasm which what was dripping from his words right now.

It was perfectly understandable once a person understood exactly what the boy had been going through for the past, what, hour or so? Was it longer? Yugi couldn't tell, he wasn't sure the flow of time in the game was really the same as that of outside.

But anyway, he had been dragged against his will out of town, through three random monster encounters (which he didn't consider entirely random seeing how Kyoko and Ryou had purposely been wandering around looking to be ambushed), and then down into a dark dank underground ruin that was the local dungeon adventure site. After several more ambushes and deathtraps, they had just gotten through a rousing fight with a patrol of orcs that had chased them into what appeared to be a dead end until Yugi had solved the mural riddle which revealed another passage way.

And more orcs.

He was getting sick of orcs.

Not that Yugi wasn't having fun, really he was enjoying himself once he got into it, and the tension and adrenaline were definitely quite real. He had never felt this alive as when he was nearly scared out of his mind about whether he was still going to be alive after the next step he took. Plus he didn't have to do too much fighting than self-defense, not with Ryou and Kyoko around.

It takes quite a bit of patience and perseverance to keep up with his friends though. While Ryou, quite literally the creator of the world, didn't know everything about this game world but he was probably the closest to the claims of being omniscient. His attitude toward everything was quite laidback and nonchalant. Yugi wasn't sure if he was playing in character or not. Then there was Kyoko whom Yugi couldn't help but wonder if she was getting too much into the game. Though she sometimes became overly paranoid, she was wearing her "player character" like a second skin, as if she had powers like the ones her character had all her life.

Of course, Ryou was the same way but he had an excuse.

Well, Yugi was getting used to 'activating' his character's abilities, which was really nothing more than thinking and doing. The only difference with doing that in the game was that the outcome was in the end determined by his defined characteristics and the die roll.

At least he didn't think the real world operated on the concept of dice rolls.

The satisfying sound of the chest's tumblers falling into place, without the accompanying ominous sound of gears or a burning fuse, restored Yugi's good mood. It had been a very challenging trap and lock. Though if his character's level and skill were above that of the general player population in this game, exactly how were the programmers expecting the run-of-the-mill players to actually open this thing?

"Well, there is always a chance of getting a lucky roll," Ryou commented, looking over Yugi's shoulder and nearly giving the boy a heart attack. Yugi had not realized he had been speaking out loud. "However, as a game master myself, I do admit it does seem rather odd that these encounters so far have been far above par than what I was expecting. The normal players must certainly be having a harder time at this than we are."

"If there are even any down here. I don't think we've run into anyone else since we entered this dungeon." Kyoko chewed on her lip and thought back. "Is everyone else just staying above ground, or heavens forbid, just fighting each other?"

"Hmmm. It's counterproductive and not something I particularly expected from Japanese players. We tend to be more cooperative than American ones, have you ever seen one of their online world games? They have those what were they called again?"

"PKers?" Yugi suggested to Ryou.

"Yes, PKers, Player Killers. A most unproductive attitude. How can you develop friendship and trust when you always have to worry about whether someone is going to drop in and kill you were you stand?"

"He...help..."

"What was that Muto-kun?"

Yugi shook his head. "That wasn't me."

Ryou looked at Kyoko but then quickly dismissed her. Faint as it had been, he was sure it was a male voice. Something scraped hard against the wall behind them.

"Whose there?!" demanded the White Sage, commanding his staff's capped crystal stone to erupt into enough light equivalent to daylight. The extended illumination revealed a fallen person, the sound earlier apparently having come from when his armor had struck against the wall as he fell.

"Please... help...," gasped the bulky man, looking frightfully pale under his tanned skin criss-crossed with lighter scars. Perhaps it was the light but he didn't really seem all that there, as if the edges of his body were blurring. "Something... killing... too strong..."

Without making much more sense, the man finally collapsed into silence. Before the confused trio's eyes, his visual grid disassembled into pixels and vanished, leaving nothing behind.

"...so that's how they configured death."

Kyoko and Yugi gave Ryou incredulous looks at his cavalier attitude. Someone, a PC, had just died in front of them. Of course, being a game, this wasn't real death but Ryou's comment just seemed so... uncaring?

"Did he... manage to get all the way down here just to tell us that?" Yugi ventured to ask. They were rather deep into the dungeon and if that player had already been running away from whatever it was that had fatally wounded him... But they had run into so many monsters on the way down!

"Is this part of the game scenario? He didn't look like he was in any condition to just waltz down into this level of the dungeon and it looks like he was alone," Kyoko added, apparently sharing Yugi's train of thought, as she looked back down the empty corridor that the dead player must have come through.

Ryou, if he had even heard what the two had said, had his lips pursed, apparently deep in thought as he looked at his left hand. It had been acting up a lot these past several weeks and he didn't think for a minute it was because the local climate didn't suit it. Though he hadn't thought it necessary, just before they entered the game, Ryou had muttered some old phrases taught to him by his mother long ago, phrases that were believed to be effective against warding evil. People used to believe that demons and such were the reason behind pains and ills. His left hand had been perfectly fine in the game so far.

And perhaps that was reason to worry.

"Let's go up top, shall we?" With a flourish of robes and staff, Ryou gave his companions precious little warning as his spell enveloped the trio and transported them out of the dark dungeon that had been longer, deeper, and harder than he had expected. Someone, or something, had wanted to keep them occupied. The dead player who appeared before them was only a messenger that the preparations were done.

* * *

Like any other kid in the Domino City, Ky was wandering through Kaiba Land, which was considered the place to be to have fun. Of course, unlike other kids, he hadn't need to pay for admission into any of the attractions being a ghost and invisible to normal eyes. Also unlike other kids, he wasn't here to have fun. He was here on business.

Ky was here looking for his puzzle pieces. He was certain there was a logical reason behind where he found them, unfortunately that reasoning was beyond him and probably tied to either whatever the puzzle was supposed to be or represent or his missing memories. Several nights had been spent trying to put the puzzle pieces together, rebuffing any offer of help from Kyoko, but it had only led Ky to the conclusion that he would need most if not all of the pieces before he could make any headway.

It didn't look like he was going to find any more pieces here but it was still only mid-afternoon despite the dark clouds that had only recently gathered outside. The weatherman had predicted sunny weather all day today. Meteorology was never an exact science anyway.

Even if he wanted to, he couldn't really enjoy the games and rides here, the former requiring that he actually be able to touch them and the latter requiring that he find an empty seat to avoid the uncomfortable sensation of "sharing" one.

Maybe he'll just go check out what that crowd of kids over there were doing. There was a lot of yelling and complaining but the poker face man in a black suit and shades, looking every inch foreboding, refused to budge and let any one into the doorway behind him. That wasn't a problem for Ky who just slipped by and after a moment's hesitation, walked through the closed door.

To find himself amidst chaos.

* * *

"Just what the hell is going on??" Mokuba yelled at the scrambling technical staff as the individual video feeds from the various VR pods were blipping and turning black. Under normal circumstances, that meant the player's session was terminated, generally by death or by time-out, and the player's consciousness would return. However, all of the blacked-out pods remained closed, their occupants still lost on the other side of... wherever. Vital sign readings placed the players in the same state as when they were immersed in the game.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba-sama," apologized Kuroda, alternating between wringing his hands and pushing up his constantly falling glasses. "We're getting signal loss from the players. They die but somehow they aren't returning. This never happened during testing!"

The young boy gritted his teeth and turned back to glare at the checkerboard monitor now mostly covered with black squares, letting Kuroda get back to work on resolving this mess with his staff. Technicians were running diagnostics on the software and hardware, checking for anything that might explain what was happening. It kind of looked like a lot of white lab rats running around in the showcase maze of pods below.

He only looked at the vital sign readings briefly, a safety measure included in all of the pods to monitor the players and if necessary force their ejection from the game should something unusual in their physiology arise. Mokuba knew next to nothing about how to read them except that the current readings were disturbing similar to that of his brother's in the hospital.

Even though Kaiba Seto was in a coma, it wasn't like any other coma that the doctors could make any sense out of. There was no need for life support and his body was in a perfect state of health. As some of the medical students noted when they thought Mokuba wasn't listening, it was like the lights were on but nobody was home.

And the ones responsible for his brother's current condition... If Mokuba's glare actually had any force behind it, it might have cracked the monitor in front him. Even as other VR pods lost their signals and blacked out, the three belonging to Muto Yugi and his two friends were still alive.

* * *

The Pharaoh was, to put it simply, bored out of his mind. If he wasn't already dead, he'd be bored to death. But being a ghost, one tethered to a host, he didn't have many options of what to do or where to do it. He also didn't have a firm grasp of time, being as they were inside a building, but it felt like an eternity since Yugi and Kyoko had 'fallen asleep'.

Though, he had to admit things were looking a bit more lively now as all these people in white coats were running around looking at those ovoid things with the people inside. They looked very worried, shouting at each other about things the Pharaoh didn't quite understand. The people wearing black had stationed themselves at all of the doorways and no new people were being admitted in.

Except for that brown-haired boy whom no one seemed to notice was wandering around, looking at this and that, frowning at whatever the white-coat people were saying.

"Oi."

The boy didn't seem to hear him. Not that most people could, the Pharaoh noted. But he expected the boy could, and just hadn't realized he was being spoken to.

"Hey, boy."

Ky blinked and looked around before he caught himself. That was silly of him, why would anyone be calling to him? No one could see him except Kyoko and that had most definitely not sounded like her. He was about to move on when the voice called to him again.

"Do you... know what is...happening?"

The Japanese sounded strange, stilted, as if spoken by someone not very familiar with it. Ky looked around again, this time just to convince himself that no one was talking to him. Unfortunately, he found himself to be quite wrong as he locked eyes with what looked to be some runaway from an Ancient Egyptian history book...or exhibit.

The young ghost processed this immediately. There was another ghost here. His past experiences with other ghosts were generally not good and his first instinct was to run. Looking for possible escape routes, he finally looked past the foreign ghost to the pods behind it, and their occupants.

"Kyoko??" She had said she was going to Kaiba Land for some kind of play test but Ky hadn't really been paying attention to her at the time. This must have been it then. With more alarm than he would willingly admit to himself, Ky looked up at the monitor screen above her pod and was relieved to see it still active. She hadn't been hit yet with whatever was screwing up the system on the other pods.

"You know...Kyoko?" The Pharaoh looked down at the boy ghost, eyes narrowed as he observed the curt nod. Well, he supposed that shouldn't surprise him but the form of the boy before him was surprising. This wasn't what he had been expecting, based on his vague recollection of what had happened. "What then... is happening?" He waved an arm to gesture to the rest of the showcase room.

Ky felt a sharp dislike for this other ghost, for reasons he could neither explain nor remember, but since he hadn't made any hostile moves toward him yet, Ky wasn't going to lose his ground. He had barely repressed an involuntary shudder when the egyptian ghost had raised his hand but it had immediately moved away from him. Now why had he reacted like that?

"There apparently is a bug in the algorithm that manages the awareness transference between reality and the digital signals that makes up the so-called 'virtual reality' of the game. Of course, with all of the variables that must be handled including buffering of the sensory network to prevent a psychosomatic feedback backlash..." Ky trailed off as he saw he was losing the other ghost in his explanation. But he was also growing uncomfortable. Exactly how did he know all of this? This was the first time he's ever seen any of this.

"Hey, check out the screen!"

Any further discussion was cut off as one of the technicians pointed to the still active, or rather the only set of active screens on the entire floor. All eyes, some with curiosity, some with alarm, and one with veiled anticipation, turned.

* * *

"What the hell is going on??" Kyoko exclaimed, unknowingly repeating the exact same words said by Mokuba on the other side of reality. Unfortunately, the people around her were equally at a loss in regards to an answer.

Ryou's spell had brought them not just out of the dungeon but right back in the town square where Yugi had first appeared. However, no longer were the streets crowded with wandering players and computer generated non-player characters. The fountain was broken, water trickling down the exposed tubing. There was not a soul in the empty, forlorn streets, the dark sky above an ominous backdrop to the now battered and broken town.

There was one new feature though. In place of the town's only temple, formerly a pristine white chapel with elegant stained glass windows, there was now a twisted thorny collection of dark towers covered with grotesque and erotic carvings of stone.

"...is there anyone else here?" Yugi asked in a hushed voice. The darkness and sense of despair were oppressive, if that was even possible. This was just a game right?

"Yes. There is." The White Druid's answer was short, crisp, and to the point. Keeping one hand on his staff, Ryou took up a flanged mace from beneath his robes and held it up. His face still had a smile but not the friendly kind. " _Reve_-- "

"No need."

The voice roared like thunder and fire rolled into one, causing both Kyoko and Yugi to feel a shiver deep down in their bones. There was an urge to run but both held their ground. Ryou didn't appear affected at all, looking coolly at the open street before him.

If darkness could unfurl itself, it did so before them. The street shook as something heavy stepped down, tongues of flames lapping toward the sky above. Drawing itself up twice the height of any of the three humans, the blackness around itself pulled back to reveal itself actually as large bat wings that had hidden the grotesque body of red scales underneath. Its large fangs were pulled back into a sick parody of a grin.

"Long time no see," Ryou greeted pleasantly. "Dark Master Zork."

* * *

"How the hell did that module get into the game?!?" was what harried staff members were thinking if not screaming as every single screen in the showcase room displayed all twelve feet of the gargoyle creature of evil and flame looming before the only three active players in the game. What they didn't know was that this phenomenon was spread throughout the entire building, interrupting whatever looping video of advertisement and music videos were streaming everywhere else in the amusement park building.

Mokuba put his fingers into his mouth and blew a glass-shattering, or at the very least deafeningly, whistle. It was loud enough to get everyone's attention which was what he had been aiming for anyway.

"What is going on now?" He stressed that last word ever so slightly.

Again, it was Kuroda who answered. "Well, Mokuba-sama," the man stammered licking his lips nervously. His eyes were on the glazed side, an expected reaction from someone who was expecting to get sacked any moment now. "That... creature there is the Dark Master Zork, an iconic character, or villain rather, of the game."

"And why wasn't he supposed to be in the game? Or rather, this game?" It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had gotten everyone into a frenzy, well, more of a frenzy than earlier.

"Well, we weren't going to have him appear in this demonstration play and were perhaps going to include him in a later add-on module to the game, seeing as how powerful he's supposed to be. Beginning players wouldn't stand a chance against him." If Kuroda could get any paler, he would probably faint.

"It appears to me that he is quite obviously in the game. Are you suggesting that someone breached the security around Kaiba Corporation and around Kaiba Land in order to transplant that specific part of the game into the demonstration?" Mokuba was a far cry from his brother's height by about half a meter but standing on a chair, he could still project a pale imitation of his brother's intimidation aura.

"N-No...Mokuba-sama..." Kuroda pulled at the collar of his shirt. Was it hot in here or was it just him? "I...I think...maybe a module might have...been left in the demo... not that it should have been active... someone might have been able to break into this system..."

The fifth grader glowered. He wasn't blinded to the fact that nothing was perfect, though his brother was probably the closest thing to it, and so the idea that someone might have hacked into the game system and screwed around with it was a remote possibility. His brother didn't let unsafe devices out of the corporation. Mokuba steered away from the thought that if it was something his brother had missed, it had to be very bad.

* * *

There were some people already thinking that it couldn't get any worse than this. And they weren't even in the same realm of reality.

Yugi was sincerely questioning his current level of sanity as he tried to process what was going on now. Here he was in close-fitting leathers with a belt of daggers and lock picks, a quiver of quarrels bound to his left thigh and a polished black hand crossbow bearing silver runes in his right hand, standing beside his two friends who were equally outlandishly dressed and armed while one of said friends was discussing the weather with the larger-than-life and certainly not a cardboard cut-out Dark Master Zork, the overall ends-all be-all villain for the Monster World game, before them.

Did he forget to mention that they were all in a video game right now?

"It does look like it is going to rain, at the very least," Ryou remarked unperturbed by the heavy stench of sulfur all around them. "Not the most pleasant of backdrops for a get-together though if I had known this was going to happen, I would have much preferred to spend the day studying."

Zork's hot breath turned to steam as it snorted. "I have been waiting a long time to get revenge on you for entrapping me, White Druid. There will be no escape from my wrath."

"Now that sounds like stock dialogue." Yugi bit back a giggle hearing Kyoko's muttering. "They even got Ryou's name wrong. It's supposed to be Sage, not Druid. We must report this to the quality assurance team."

"Hah, so your new cohorts do not even know who you really are! White Druid! In thanks for providing me my freedom, I will only stretch out your torture and humiliation for a several millennia, instead of for eternity as I had originally planned."

There wasn't much of a difference between those two in the three humans' opinion.

"How thoughtful. However, I think you are sincerely befuddled if you can think that you are 'free' now. This is only a video game, a false world so to speak." Ryou's eyes turned hard, piercing the demon with the weight of his words. "And you, are only supposed to be a program, a figment of shadow, not even an illusion."

"I am real here, foolish mortal." Zork emphasized his point with the fiery eruption of the scenery around them. The flying embers burned hot on their clothes and skin, scalding the air they breathed. "And thanks to the souls I have collected here, I can break your prison and start my reign of darkness and death over the world."

Well, that certainly would explain the obvious lack of characters running around if Zork, or his minions, had been killing them off. Now looking at the contradicting fact that Ryou knew that Zork was not supposed to be implemented yet in the game, much less this demo, and yet here he was right in front of him and Ryou's left hand was not twitching. So perhaps there was some truth that Zork may have escaped his prison, or more accurately, one layer of his prison.

"You may have found your way out of a cell, but you are by no means free. Nor are you whole, Dark Master Zork. You will never be as you were, not as long as you are Zork."

Yugi didn't really understand what Ryou was going on about, which was lovely game dialogue by the way, but he could clearly see that Zork did not like it. In fact, it seemed to be getting angrier each time Ryou said its name. He hoped Ryou had a plan and a reason to be riling up a creature capable of turning the entire landscape into a sea of fire with a snap of its fingers.

"I AM--!!" Zork roared, its maw moving as it tried to say something but inevitably failed. Instead, it leaped into the air, arms outstretched and wreathed in pillars of flame. "Perish, White Druid! And all those foolish enough to stand against me!!"

Everything turned into flame.

* * *

It was a truly spectacular battle of good versus evil, demonic flame versus holy light and blades of power, just like out of a movie. And to think that was being accomplished all in a video game, even one using the newest cutting edge technology, was enough to make gamers start camping out in front of the game outlets before a release date had even been announced.

How unfortunate, Mokuba noted in a distant part of his mind, that what the people outside saw as the ultimate promotion video was actually an out of control program that the creators were trying frantically and futilely to halt.

As much satisfaction he could get out of seeing Muto Yugi being burned, knocked into walls, tossed around by a whip of fire, and just overall getting his butt handed to him, Mokuba couldn't help feel a twinge of concern for what was occurring. He didn't have much love for the girl either but she wasn't getting it as badly as the boy. And the white guy, Bakura-sensei, seemed to be handling himself well all things given. With his protective and healing spells, he was the main reason that the other two, particularly in Yugi's case, hadn't already been killed.

Kuroda had looked extremely nervous when Mokuba asked him the likelihood that Bakura-sensei's character would be able to defeat the rogue module and stammered something that it was possible but not likely if he was occupied with helping his friends. From what Mokuba gathered from the other staff, Bakura-sensei's character was more powerful than the standard demo player characters as were his friends' characters but the Zork module had been designed not only for advanced players but experienced ones as well, with higher numbers and at least specialized equipment. In those terms, the players were at a severe disadvantage.

They still hadn't figured out the reason behind the signal loss either.

It was possible, since no one could rule it out, that if all of the players died then perhaps the game would terminate and their consciousness would return. Or not.

What a fiasco to occur when his brother wasn't here. Mokuba was sure that if Seto was here, he would have been able to handle this.

His thoughts were interrupted by an argument among the frenzied workers.

"If we can get inside with a debugger access, we may be able to find out what is going on--"

"Get in how? All of the pods are occupied! And there is no telling what may happen if we remove a player from a pod before they've regained consciousness. Besides, if you die in there, you just might end up the same way You think you can stand up against the Zork module?!"

"What other options do we have? We can't direct a computer character to do the checking. Granting debugger access to an AI will just create another rogue module."

"Then we'll just have to rely on the players who are still inside."

"Perhaps you haven't noticed but they are a bit busy staying alive while a demon is trying to kill them!"

Mokuba bit his lip. As much as he would love to see Yugi's character bite the proverbial dust, the staff were correct. They could not shut down the computer and restart the programming without knowing the status of the players' consciousness and this rogue Zork module was wrecking havoc with their control over the game.

"Kuroda! Take who you need and keep searching for that hacker! You there, give me communication access to the active players! We can at least get that can't we! Everyone else, find a way to get into the system and hack those characters some support. Magic items, magic spells, I don't care what!"

* * *

Pharaoh was pacing in circles above Yugi, occasionally looking at the screen displaying his three friends fighting for their lives against a monster of fire. He wasn't entirely sure how this all worked but he distinctly sensed that they were all in very real danger. His fist pounded on the casing of Yugi's pod.

Ky gave the other ghost an irritated look for his disrespect toward the delicate machinery. Okay, perhaps not that delicate but such behavior certainly wasn't helping matters. With all of the chaos, and all of the staff retreating to the control room, there was no one around to notice that one of the stations attached to a pod terminal was being manipulated. Not that they could see who was doing the manipulating.

Drawing up knowledge that came from who knows where, Ky was rapidly skimming over the game's programming code. He had yet to come up with anything that appeared out of place or wrong and worse yet he could not find any irregularities with the module that was causing all of this trouble to begin with. It was fully formed and complete, ready to be implemented at any time. However, why was that so? If it was never intended to be in this demonstration and slated for later development. It wasn't even supposed to be done yet.

Ky wasn't sure how he knew this but decided he might was well trust it. There was precious little else to rely upon.

This meant that someone meant to have this module run now, at this event. Given how the White Sage character had been talking with Zork, there was quite a history between the two and most likely the White Sage was the target. This was not simply some surprise to show off the game.

"Someone is trying to set something up… but what?" Ky turned his blue eyes to the game monitor again where the three surviving players were preparing for another round of fiery rain from their opponent. "…what would be the purpose of trying to kill characters inside a game?"

Pharaoh had had enough of all this. Sure none of the other people in these pod things had woken up yet, no matter how much noise the people in black or white pounded on them, but as a ghost Pharaoh had some things to try that only he could do. Namely, slip inside the pod covering and enter Yugi's body.

It was something he had done accidentally once before, when they had stayed up too late playing games and Yugi had fallen asleep on the floor. Pharaoh tried to manifest himself enough to pull the boy to bed but it had been too much at the time and instead found himself falling inside Yugi. That woken the boy in an instant and neither wanted to repeat the very disturbing and disorientating experience. But if that would wake Yugi up now, Pharaoh was quite willing to stomach some brief nausea.

Ignoring the other ghost's exclamation of surprise, Pharaoh dove into the pod and into Yugi, bracing himself for that stifling crushing sensation of being inside something else.

Except that it never came.

Pharaoh hesitantly opened one eye that had been scrunched close to see lots of fire, a big red ugly thing with black wings, and Ryou's back as he raised his staff to shield those behind him from the monster's attack. At the ghost's feet were kneeling Yugi and Kyoko, the former hugging his ribs as if they pained him and the latter sporting a nasty burn that coiled around her left arm.

"So this really isn't part of the demonstration."

"No, it is not. The staff is currently trying to download some upgraded equipment into the game and then transfer it into your inventories however they are encountering 'trouble'." The young disembodied voice that was speaking to Kyoko and Yugi came from a small floating square that was labeled 'Live Chat - Administrator', which of course the Pharaoh didn't know not being able to read. From the speaker's tone, he either didn't have great trust in the ability of his staff or didn't believe their difficulties. "Apparently, since these were not supposed to be in the demo, they have to go find the data from the development team. Any way, some of the standard available healing potions should be available to you now. They're being kept on unlimited use, or at least should be."

"There is, I take it, no word on halting this rogue program then."

"No, sensei, they are still working on it. Right now, the best options appears to be defeating it."

"For our continued livelihood, that would be a given. The game parameters should also release the other players as well. By the way, some mana potions would also be greatly appreciated."

"Hey! Mana potions for the white guy!! Oh, and whatever the girl's character needs to recover!"

"Power crystals," Ryou murmured. "By the way, I don't suppose anyone noticed where Zork has skipped off to?"

The very obvious presence of the demon monster was gone though the flames ranged around them still. All around them was the silence of crackling fire. Or rather, it wasn't only the fire that was crackling.

"Aren't we the only ones here?" Yugi asked in a hushed voice, apparently having made a successful check to listen for sounds. There were footsteps approaching them, many footsteps, but there was something off about them that he couldn't quite place.

"All other players are out," confirmed the administrator. "Cold that is. There shouldn't be any active monster modules either."

"You may want to double check that." Kyoko said matter-of-factly, standing up as she absorbed several of the new power crystals to replenish her psychic power point supply. "We appear to be having guests, a lot of them."

Walking out of the ring of fire around them was a circle of shambling skeletons. No wonder Yugi had thought the footsteps had sounded weird. There was an eerie green flame inside their ribcages and in their eye sockets that ran down their arms to the greatswords they carried.

"So Zork has decided to wear us down since we are apparently more than he can chew. Do try to stay alive, Muto-kun, Suomi-kun." Yugi and Kyoko gave Ryou disbelieving looks at his casual attitude. Didn't he think that Zork may be planning something, like breaking out however he planned to accomplish that, right now while they were distracted by walking bones? "Zork cannot get free yet, regardless of his claims. I would venture that he needs at least your two souls, or what passes for them, for his little parlor trick and he certainly cannot break out of his prison while I am alive and well."

"Such refreshingly good news," Kyoko bit out sarcastically. "How are you hanging in there, Yugi?"

Yugi actually was not hanging in there all that well. He would like his previous statement of feeling more alive than he's ever felt before while on the surge of adrenaline retracted and forever stricken from the records, whatever and wherever they may be. This was supposed to be a game, why did he have to feel like he had gotten beat up by every bully from elementary school to middle school? He was tired, sore, hurting…

"Did you drink that healing potion yet?"

Oh yeah, he had forgotten about that. Yugi unhooked a vial of glowing blue liquid from his bandolier and downed it in one gulp.

"Okay, I'm ready to go. How are we splitting this up?" Yugi would like his previous statement retracted and the previously retracted one reinstated. Amazing what the difference of full hit points could do to one's frame of mind. He wondered if he could get these in the real world for P.E.?

"Yugi… alright…?"

"Yes, Pharaoh, I'm fine now. You're not my mother. Pharaoh?!?"

Everyone did a double take, not entirely believing their eyes that their ghost friend was suddenly here with them when he hadn't been there a moment before. That and his clothes were now entirely different, completely white and emblazoned prominently with the symbol of a golden sunburst. For his part, he looked surprised as well, especially since up until right now, he had not been able to get any of his friends to hear, or apparently see, him at all.

"Well, it appears we now have a cleric." Leave it to Ryou to remain the most undisturbed by this sudden change of events.

"Are you sure you don't know anything about this?" Kyoko asked accusingly.

"I plead the fifth."

"The fifth what?" Yugi and the Pharaoh shared identical confused looks.

"Anyway, Pharaoh can take care of our little problem right now." The Pharaoh looked at Ryou's confident smile with some puzzlement and more wariness. Ryou looked very much like a smug cat. "Please imagine, oh say the sun, is burning away all of these skeletons. The bone things," the White Sage gestured widely to the monsters hovering just outside of the protective barrier he had erected at who knows what time.

Kyoko's eyes opened in understanding and nodded at the Pharaoh when he looked at her for explanation. Sighing, he did as he was told, not for the first time wishing he understood more of their language so he could get a better explanation of things. But then, since Yugi didn't look like he understood, perhaps simply being fluent wasn't enough.

Cupping his hands together before him, Pharaoh imagined the sun, the burning pounding oppressive heat that bore down on him day after day, never relenting, never yielding, the sign of eternity and the rulership of the king over all that felt the sun's ray. In his hands, he could feel the power gathering, unfamiliar and frightening as if something deep within him rejected this with all of its might. Eager to be rid of it, Pharaoh thrust it up into the air above them and was greeted with unearthly wails as holy bolts of white flame rained down on the skeletons around them, incinerating them to dust.

"Wow." Yugi summed it all up after the fires, all of them, died down. "What level is Pharaoh?"

"Better question, how did you get in here? Not that I expect you can answer that question," sighed Kyoko, looking at the Pharaoh who was looking from his hand to the dust of bones all around them.

"You would think," Ryou said conversationally to his staff, "that they would be more concerned that there is still an evil final villain set on killing them."

"You think… correctly."

Zork's rumbling guttery voice came from behind him and Ryou immediately shunted himself several yards to the left, barely being missed by a ball of fire the size of himself crashing through where he had been standing. He could see several others flying thru where their group had been and his friends jumping and tumbling out of the way. Even though his spells granted them some protection from fire, it would still burn to be hit by one of those.

Ryou suddenly felt something behind him and leaped up high and fast, over another fireball that even as he watched, swerved to fly right back toward him. How quaint, homing fireballs. These little beauties will not stop following their target until they detonate, one way or another.

Landing on the ground, Ryou stabbed his staff into the ground, driving its power into the earth beneath the burnt cobblestones.

" _WALL "_

A thick mass of dirt and stone erupted from the ground before him and Ryou could hear the explosion and the shaking impact as the giant sphere of flame slammed into it. Shielding himself from the falling earth, Ryou could see Pharaoh summoning up his own shield of flame and the resultant blast knocked Yugi, who was behind the ghost, to the ground.

Though, since the Pharaoh did appear solid here, could he still be considered a ghost now, Ryou mused.

"Ah, Kyoko!" Yugi yelled in warning, looking up to his friend running along some of the surviving rooftops with a fireball behind her and another coming in right in front of her. At the very last possible moment, she did a ninety-degree turn and jumped out off the way between the two incoming spheres. His sigh of relief at her escape was cut off sharply as a spiked tail suddenly burst out of the building she had jumped off. Unbalanced from the explosion blast, Kyoko wasn't able to avoid it as it slammed into her and soon found herself constricted by Zork's long tail as the Dark Master emerged from his hiding place.

"That's not fair!!"

"Yugi-kun, I really don't think it is an issue of fairness…"

"Let her go!!" This time Yugi punctuated with a quarrel from his crossbow. Not that he expected it to do much since earlier Zork had shrugged them off like nothing. So it was as much of a surprise to him, as it was to Zork and pretty much anyone else, when the demon screeched in pain and clawed at the silver crossbow bolt embedded in its shoulder.

"Eh?"

"They got them through!!" The administrator was yelling thru the Live Chat window. "Change your equipped items now! And I don't know how those other two got in but they seem to be helping you so get rid of that Bork thing!!"

"That's Zork," Ryou corrected helpfully, various items suddenly appearing on his visual grid as he equipped the extra gear the technician staff had finally managed to download into their inventories.

"Whatever!"

"Pharaoh, er, just put on whatever is…" Yugi stumbled over how to explain this to the ghost even as he re-directed and replaced his gear, trying to remember what does what now. "Wait, didn't the admin say two…?"

There was another howl, of pain and anger, as Zork spun around to strike at something that was no longer there. His tail was no more than a bleeding stump now and Yugi almost jumped two feet into the air when something dark suddenly landed next to him.

The dark thing stood up, revealing itself to be a full armored knight in black and one arm was holding the still entangled Kyoko. It said nothing as it deposited her on her feet and turned back around, black and gold long sword in hand, to face the final boss.

"Are you alright, Kyoko?"

Kyoko grimaced as Yugi helped her pull Zork's tail off of her and quickly finished off a healing potion to remove the feeling of cracked ribs. His friend still didn't reply as she proceeded to equip her new gear which made look like she was some kind of energy battery with all of the floating crystals around her. But Yugi could tell what kind of mood she was in. Kyoko was so going to pay back that monster in spades.

"Well then, if everyone is ready, I think it is time for the Dark Master Zork to exit the stage," announced the White Sage.

* * *

The control room for the Monster World simulation game was as ever in chaos. There was only a slight breather after they finally managed to get the enhanced gear to the three players so they could stand a better chance of putting a stop to the rogue program. However, the culprit was still at large.

Mokuba could see Kuroda harassing his team. It was very likely that once the Zork module was defeated, they may lose any chance of catching the hacker. However, priority was on retrieving the lost consciousness of the other players.

There was also another anomaly, as there now appeared to be another hacker, maybe two, somewhere. Those two new players that suddenly appeared to help out, the cleric who bore a striking resemblance to Muto Yugi, aside from being taller and tanned, and the tall dark knight character that had saved Suomi Kyoko.

Mokuba had ordered that news of none of this was to be leaked outside. The effect on Kaiba Corporation stocks, to say nothing of his brother's position, would be devastating even if they could resolve the problem. The project itself had been top secret, due in no small part to its previous military nature, so for three hackers to break into this, into his brother's system, was nigh impossible.

This would point to an inside job. But there was another concern.

The only way to be a character in this game required the use of the immersion pods and not only were those all occupied, the records could confirm that none of the current players had even created the two new characters they were seeing it. To make things even more confusing, one of the engineers was currently re-checking the entire identification routing subroutines because of the entry point of the two new characters. The cleric was identified as coming through the pod signal on Muto Yugi's and the dark knight through Suomi Kyoko's.

That was not possible.

Mokuba himself was running through the system trying to pinpoint the origin of these two new characters that had snuck in literally under their noses. In particular, there was something familiar about the dark knight character but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Zork is dead!!" whooped a technician, drawing all eyes to the monitors that were showing the White Sage standing amidst the fading body of the fallen Dark Master. As if on cue, the various pod monitors blipped to life and the life monitor signals began to jump.

"We're getting the players back."

"You're not paid to be standing around like statues! Bring everyone out! And not a word to any of them!!" ordered the vice president, kicking the stunned staff back to work. As soon as he was certain no one was looking at him anymore, Mokuba turned back to his station monitor to glare long and hard at the program file for the Black Knight that he had finally pulled up when Zork was defeated.

The avatar was named KAI.

And its debug access code belonged to his brother.

* * *

Kuroda had not had a good day at work. There had been that fiasco with the Monster World simulation game that had all been hushed up. In the end, It wasn't that hard to do since none of the players, well the ones that had died during the playtest, remembered anything while they were 'lost', not even the passage of time. Their publicity team had been called in right away to work on the unintentional promotion the battle with the rogue module had caused, since it had been broadcasted all over Kaiba Land.

Which was yet another thing the vice president, scrawny brat of a kid that he is, demanded that Kuroda find out how it happened, why it happened, and to make sure it never happened again.

Of course, Kuroda's late night tonight was not entirely because of the follow-up for all that work. He already knew how and why the Zork module activated and why the players whose characters died did not regain consciousness. Kuroda did not know where or how those two extra characters that assisted the White Druid had come from but it was simply two more people that had to be gotten rid of.

Just like the White Druid.

"For Zork Necrophidas-sama…" he swore, clutching something beneath his shirt.

"…I thought as much."

Kuroda started, whipping around to face the speaker but could say not a word as blood gurgled in his throat. Or rather, out of his throat, from the nasty gash across his wind pipe. Grasping for air, or perhaps his blood, the man crumpled to the ground, his darkening vision taking in the moonlight reflected on the pale hair of his assailant.

"You Dark Disciples never give up. Well, guess what, neither will I. Your lord is never going to set foot into this world again. Not if I have anything to say about it."

He stood there, watching Kuroda's dying twitches. "A swift death is more than you deserve."

* * *

Ryou cracked a huge yawn, one that Kyoko usually expected to see from Yugi after a late night of game play. They now met up to walk to school together, something that Yugi and Kyoko had done previously.

"Late night?" She teased. "Or did Zork keep you up like Yugi."

"I was not up all night because of Zork!" Yugi protested. He did not see the Pharaoh shaking his head behind him, belying the truth of Yugi's statement.

When they had finally returned to the real world, they had been quickly ushered to a private meeting with Kaiba Mokuba who did not spare any words in swearing them to silence on the entire matter.

Or else.

Kaiba Corporation was claiming the entire deal was a surprise demonstration of the world and game system with the cooperation of the creator. There were no reports regarding the unexplainable temporary player 'loss' nor how the Zork module was never meant to be there in the first place.

Of course, they didn't receive any explanations about what happened either.

"No, I was up all night writing a new Monster World scenario," Ryou said rubbing the black smudges beneath his eyes. "What we went through gave me a really interesting idea. After all, real life experiences are always the best model to draw from."

"Real? You're saying that Zork was real?"

Ryou just smiled as he threw his arms over the shoulders of his two friends. "The White Druid could not have held back the Dark Master Zork this time if it wasn't for his two trusty henchmen. However, if we don't hurry, we're going to be late for school."

"Companions!"

"What about the Pharaoh? He helped too."

"Alright, three henchment."

"And that dark knight also helped. And that's companions, Ryou."

"Actually, he's Black Knight. And it's henchmen."

Kyoko was going to protest again but the sound of the school bell cut her off.

"We're going to be late!" she said instead, grabbing a friend in each hand and proceeding to drag them with her as she ran. The Pharaoh kept up as best as he could, though he couldn't help notice a news report on a TV they passed by about a man found murdered last night. He wouldn't have paid any attention normally but he was certain he had seen this man at that pod building the other day looking very intently at Ryou's pod from the back room.

Well, it probably wasn't anything important. Right now, his friends had those 'examinations' to be worried about.

* * *

(1) Bakura Ryou desu I am Ryou Bakura.

(2) Yoroshiki onegaishimasu, Muto-kun Nice to meet you, Muto-kun. Since Ryou doesn't really know Yugi or Kyoko, he refers to them by their family name and with the suffix '-kun'.

(3) Yes, it is offical, Yugi is 5' tall. It says in the official character guide. Jounouchi is 5'10", Honda 5'11", Anzu 5'5", and Kaiba Seto is 6'2". These numbers were derived from the centimeter measurements and collaborated from several different web reviews of the book.

(4) The KC employer referred to Ryou with the suffix '-sensei' because he was the creator of Monster World. This follows the line of thought that also has people call published mangaka "XXXX-sensei". I think I'm using it correctly.


End file.
